Naruto: The Bonds of Family
by no-one-is-special
Summary: Sasuke Uchiha wasn't the only one who lost family to the Uchiha Massacre. Naruto's older brother Arashi went missing while on a mission to capture Itachi. With the shared pain the two will begin their friendship much sooner than anticipated. With the help of a experienced Jonin and a fiery tempered kunoichi, the two will forge new bonds and become stronger than they ever dreamed AU
1. The Hokage's Son

The first thing Arashi noticed as he entered the room was the tiny baby on the table in the center of the room. The babe was swaddled in white silk cloths, sleeping in a basket. Arashi noticed a small tuft of blonde hair atop the child's head, and six little birthmarks on his cheeks slightly resembling whiskers.

It was only after he'd taken in everything he could about the baby that he finally noticed the others in the room. Most prominent among them was the Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, who'd taken the office up again after the death of the Fourth Hokage the night prior. Next to him were the village elders Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane, and Danzo Shimura. The four of them seemed to be in a rather heated argument about something, and even at his young age of 12 Arashi was able to determine it was about the baby.

"You wanted to see me Lord Hokage?" Arashi asked, drawing the attention of the four elders on himself.

The Hokage looked at him with his usual warm, albeit withered, smile, while his companion gave him a stare of indifference. However, Danzo's would be better described as a glare.

"Yes Arashi," The Third replied cheerfully, "Could you please wait outside for a minute? We have an issue my friends and I must settle before we talk."

With a respectful nod Arashi removed himself from the room, but his curiosity was too great. Quickly flashing his hands through the necessary signs, he performed a sound amplification jutsu he knew, placing one hand on the thick wooden door and his other over his ear.

The jutsu worked similarly to a directional microphone, with the chakra in one hand acting as the dish to amplify sound and the chakra in his other acting as the headset. If he remembered correctly for once in his life, the jutsu was called the Sound Wave Detection Jutsu, though Arashi just called it '_damn good eavesdropping._'

"Hiruzen, I must protest against this. He's only a genin who can barely support himself, let alone a newborn baby." Homura's voice said clear as day.

"Then what do you suppose I do? Hand the child over to that mob outside?" The Hokage was in his extremely protective grandfather mode. "I will not let this boy be raised in some orphanage to be hated or worse."

_What the hell are they talking about? Why's this kid so special, and why would I have to support it? _Arashi wondered as the argument went on.

He caught Danzo volunteering to take and raise the child himself. While that would certainly release Arashi from the burden, he couldn't shake the feeling in his gut that it was a horrible idea. Apparently the Third Hokage agreed with him, because he instantly rejected the thought. It was then the Third Hokage said something that truly shocked the boy.

"Arashi Uzumaki is the only family the boy has. He's the only person who…" Arashi pulled away from the door as he heard the sounds of footsteps approaching down the hall.

He quickly took a seat and tried to look as casual as possible as two chunin passed by him. Arashi was about to head over to the door, when he heard the knob turn. Homura and Koharu emerged from the room, sending the young redhead an appraising look before continuing on their way.

"Arashi, you may come in now." The Hokage called from his office.

As Arashi entered the room, he found himself glancing around to see if Danzo was still present. For some reason, the old man set him on edge, and he didn't like it when he couldn't see someone who set him on edge.

"You don't have to worry about Danzo, he left in his own way."

The fact relaxed Arashi slightly, but he was still worried at the prospect he may have to take care of a baby.

"Now how much of our conversation did you overhear?"

The question took Arashi completely by surprise. He was about to question how the old man knew before he remembered whom he was talking to. Of course the Hokage had been able to sense the chakra he'd used in the Jutsu. The others probably sensed it as well. It was with a small sigh that Arashi admitted his 'guilt'.

"Most of it, Lord Hokage. Everything except the last minute or so."

"Hmmm, so you know what I'm about to ask of you?"

Arashi nodded solemnly before the Hokage continued.

"And what do you think?"

"Well sir, I think Homura's right. Since my parents died I can barely support myself. I don't see how I can support a baby as well."

Arashi's parents were both Jonin who'd died a few months ago on a mission. Arashi had been supporting himself ever since.

"Oh, I think you'll find that money won't be an issue. Do you know whose child this is?"

Arashi stole another glance at the baby on the table.

"That is the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki."

The revelation caused Arashi's eyes to widen in surprise. Not only was this the son of the Fourth Hokage, but he was also his cousin. Kushina had been his father's younger sister.

With great care, Arashi reached out and gently lifted the baby into his arms. Disturbed by the sudden movement, the babe's eyes slowly opened, revealing the bluest eyes Arashi had ever glimpsed in his life.

Succumbing to a sudden urge, Arashi shifted the newborn into one arm and tickled his chin with his free index finger. The child reached up, wrapping his tiny hands around Arashi's finger.

Unable to suppress a small smile, Arashi looked up at the Hokage, who once again had a warm smile across his face. "What's his name?"

The elderly Hokage strode over to him and placed a wrinkled hand atop the baby's head.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

* * *

_Five years have passed since Arashi Uzumaki become the official 'big brother' of Naruto. With the child now old enough to enter the Ninja Academy, he will discover many things, such as the inspiration for his lifelong dream...and the beginnings of his ultimate rivalry. Next time: Naruto and Sasuke: The Rivalry Begins._


	2. Naruto and Sasuke: The Rivalry Begins

Five years have passed since the day Arashi Uzumaki became the guardian of Naruto Uzumaki. For five years, Arashi has taken up the role as Naruto's protector, and "older brother". During this time, Arashi and Naruto developed a bond only existing between families: a bond of trust, love, and acceptance.

"NARUTO! WAKE UP BEFORE YOU'RE LATE FOR YOUR FIRST DAY AT THE ACADEMY!"

The blond's eyes snapped open as the little five-year-old shot up about three feet in the air before landing on the floor with a loud thud.

Arashi watched with a smile as the little blond struggled to untangle himself from his sheets. After about thirty seconds or so, Naruto finally popped his spiky blond head out from tangled mess of his blankets. The small glare the boy sent at Arashi only served to widen his grin.

"You could've just knocked or let my alarm clock wake me, ya know." Naruto complained with a yawn.

"You mean the thing that's been beeping for the past hour?" Arashi replied, placing his hands on his hips.

It was only in that moment Naruto noticed the rather loud beeping sound filling the room. "Now get dressed! It's your first day and I'll be damned if you're late for the Entrance Ceremony!" With that, Arashi turned to let Naruto get dressed.

A couple of minutes later, the blond emerged from his room wearing a black t-shirt with the symbol of their clan on his chest and white shorts.

"I'm ready! Let's get a move on, Slowpoke!"

Arashi rolled his eyes, pulling on his bright orange jacket and following the excitable child out their door.

* * *

A large crowd of children with their parents had gathered in front of the Hidden Leaf Ninja Academy. The children were chatting with each other, each proclaiming how they were going to be the greatest shinobi the Hidden Leaf Village ever produced since the Fourth Hokage. Their parents took to finding their old teammates and catching up with one another.

And then there was the Third Hokage, who stood in front of the doors to the school with three Chunin instructors standing behind him.

But Sasuke Uchiha didn't care about any of them.

No, his mind was focused on one very important individual: Fugaku Uchiha-his father. He'd been hoping to find him smiling proudly at the fact that his second son was entering the academy. But instead his father had his eyes closed, with an almost dejected expression on his face.

It was this sight that motivated Sasuke towards his current goal: be the absolute best student in the academy, to be the top in every field, so that his father would say the words he wished to hear the most: "_That's my boy." _

His father often said those words to his older brother Itachi, but never to him. Virtually the only thing young Sasuke ever heard from him was to "_...become a strong, splendid shinobi like your brother."_

The pressure wore heavily on his temper, so the little five year old was probably a bit colder than he initially meant to be when he introduced himself to his classmates.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha." He said with an almost detached, uncaring look to his face.

Sasuke noted with a satisfied smirk the reactions of his fellow classmates at the mention of his name. The most of the boys were regarding him with admiration, and virtually all of the girls were staring at him with star struck eyes. Trying his best not to blush, Sasuke made his way back seat, next to a kid with spiky blond hair.

"Alright, next up is…"

"ME!" The blond suddenly shouted, bolting up from his seat.

With everyone, Sasuke included, staring awkwardly him, the blond sprinted to the front of the class. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna become a better shinobi than all of you!"

Sasuke was dumbstruck for a moment as the implications of what the blond said sank in. This boy was claiming he was better than him - an Uchiha - the elite of the elite! The thought made Sasuke smirk at the boy's arrogance.

"_Well then, I guess I'm just going to have to put him in his place." _He thought as the blond returned to his seat next to him.

* * *

After his rather boisterous introduction, Naruto began to notice something with a vast majority of the other students. They were all giving him the exact same glares that adults did on the streets.

He hated the way people looked at him; it was like he was a piece of trash hidden away in some dark place they couldn't find but wanted to desperately discover and throw away. It made him sick to his stomach. The only people who didn't look at Naruto like he was worthless were his older brother and his teammates, Ayame Kazan and Hokori Hyuga.

As Naruto sat in his seat he could feel the glares from all around him. It was really starting to make him uncomfortable. But what was worse than the glares were the whispers. Wherever he went, he heard people whisper things about him.

Generally they were things like: '_Why does Lord Hokage allow that thing to remain in the village?' _or '_There goes the Fourth's mistake.' _

That one always confused him. Whenever he asked his older brother what they meant by _'the Fourth's mistake',_ Arashi would give him a sad look and apologize, saying, '_I'm sorry Naruto, you'll have to wait until you're older.' _

It really pissed him off.

'_Just you guys wait. I'll show all of you guys who the mistake is!' _Naruto thought as he looked around the classroom.

His classmates had apparently grown bored glaring at him and returned their attention to whatever they were doing at the moment. All of them were ignoring him, except for one student: it was a little girl with short blue-black hair and pupiless lavender eyes.

'_Hinata Hyuga' _Naruto realized, thinking back to when she introduced herself.

The girl's pale skin blushed a deep shade of red when she noticed he was looking at her. Naruto couldn't help but blush and smile a bit as she turned away from him. Naruto's smile was still on his face when he turned to glance outside, once again trying to figure out the best way to earn the respect he felt he deserved.

It was then that his eyes fell upon the carvings of the Four Hokages on the mountainside.

"THAT'S IT!" Naruto shouted, startling about half of the classroom and drawing a partially furious glare from Iruka.

"What is it now, Naruto?" Iruka growled, irritated at having his class interrupted by the blond twice in one day.

The blond gazed at his teacher, sending him a large wild smile that would be seen many times in the future.

"I'M GONNA BE THE NEXT HOKAGE!"

* * *

Acting with the composure expected from the elite Uchiha clan, Sasuke waited patiently as several students were called up to spar for their first taijutsu lesson.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

He watched as the rather annoying blond kid darted to the sparring ring. Sasuke secretly hoped he would be selected as his sparring partner, if for no other reason than to put him in his place.

"Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka announced, as if to grant his silent wish.

Barely maintaining his excitement, Sasuke walked into the ring. Across from him the blond kid stood, his bright blue eyes narrowed while looking at his opponent.

"Alright you two make the symbol of combat." Their sensei ordered.

Both Naruto and Sasuke made a one-handed tiger seal, signaling they were ready to begin. Iruka, with a quick nod of approval, raised his hand.

"Begin." He declared, bringing it down.

As soon as Iruka's hand lowered, Sasuke was moving. He smirked at the surprised look on Naruto's face as he grabbed him by the front of his shirt, hooked his leg behind Naruto's and pushed. As expected Naruto fell backwards, but that's where the tables turned, for Naruto grabbed onto Sasuke's wrist with one hand, and his shirt with the other.

As Naruto fell back he planted his foot in Sasuke's stomach to pull Sasuke over him, sending him sprawling on his back. Sasuke was stunned-the loud mouthed blond just used his own attack against him with flawless timing and placement. As the young boy pulled himself to his feet, Naruto was already rapidly approaching.

Sasuke blocked Naruto's kick with his forearm, proceeding to tackle Naruto to the ground. The boys rolled around in the dirt, each trying to stay on top of the other for more than a few seconds.

While they fought three things were going on: Iruka was trying to get the boys to stop, the boys cheered, throwing suggestions for where they could hit each other next, and every single girl-with the exception of Hinata-were screaming at Naruto for "daring to hurt their precious Sasuke."

"That's enough!" Iruka shouted, finally managing to pull the children away from another.

"Why're you stopping us?!" Both boys shouted.

"The idea is friendly sparring, not trying to kill one another," Iruka scolded, "Just look at yourselves!"

Both boys were covered in dirt, and where Naruto had a little blood dripping from his nose, Sasuke had the same with his lip.

"Now both of you make the symbol of harmony so we can move on."

Sasuke sighed before holding out his hand with his index and middle fingers extended, but Naruto had something else in mind.

"Which one of us won?" he asked.

Iruka seemed to pause for a moment, as he considered who the victor should be. Before they started brawling, both children were doing very well. Sasuke started strong and recovered nicely whereas Naruto surprised everyone with that little maneuver of his.

"Go on sensei, tell him I won." Sasuke said smugly, intruding on Iruka's thoughts and arousing the anger of Naruto.

"What are you talking about, idiot? I won!" Naruto shouted.

"I put you on the ground!"

"I reversed that move, and on top of that you're bleeding!"

"You're bleeding too you idiot!"

"Well I made you bleed first!"

"Both of you shut up!" Iruka shouted, jumping between the boys before they could resume their brawl. "The match was a draw!"

With the final ruling both boys returned to the other student's on opposite sides. All of the girls rushed over to Sasuke to see if he was okay, though a pink haired girl had offered to kill Naruto if he wanted.

He ignored them as he glared at Naruto, who was getting some pats on the back from a few of the other boys. Naruto returned his glare. They both knew their fight only just began.

* * *

"So how was school today?" Arashi asked, placing a bowl of ramen in front of Naruto.

"Fine." Naruto replied casually, practically inhaling his food.

"Did you make any new friends?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "No, but I made a rival."

* * *

_The rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke becomes more intense with each passing day. But when tragedy strikes the Uchiha family, Sasuke is surprised when help come the people he'd least expected it. Next time: The Uchiha Massacre._


	3. Uchiha Massacre

"Are you sure about this, Arashi?" Naruto asked as they neared the Uchiha compound.

"You said your match with Sasuke was interrupted right?" Arashi asked in turn, "Well, trust me when I say it's not a good thing to leave a fight unfinished."

When Arashi caught word Naruto's sparring match with Sasuke was stopped prematurely, he immediately wrote a message to Sasuke's parents requesting a "play date" so they could settle the dispute. If Arashi was honest with himself, he was a bit surprised when Fugaku Uchiha sent a reply agreeing with the proposition.

When they arrived at the compound, Naruto looked around a bit and was clearly impressed by grandeur of the area. The people walking the streets, virtually every one of them an Uchiha, stared at the two newcomers for a moment before continuing with whatever they were doing.

Naruto was slightly amazed nobody was giving him the proverbial death glare. When he inquired Arashi why that was, his older brother shrugged, claiming not to know, although Naruto heard him mutter,

"Probably because of their damned superiority complex."

It wasn't difficult to find Sasuke's house: it was the largest one after all. A short wait after knocking on the door led Naruto and Arashi face to face with Sasuke and Fugaku.

"Good morning Mr. Uchiha, Sasuke," Arashi greeted with a polite smile, "Naruto, say good morning."

"Yeah whatever," Naruto muttered under his breath, earning a gentle but firm blow to the back of his head. "Good morning Mr. Uchiha, good morning Sasuke."

The Fugaku merely nodded in reply, although Sasuke, half-heartedly, returned their greeting.

"So is there like a backyard or something we could do this in?" Arashi questioned.

"We'll use our dojo." Fugaku told him, gesturing for them to come inside and follow them.

* * *

Once they were in the dojo, the two young boys wasted no time in getting started. While Naruto and Sasuke sparred, Fugaku and Arashi sat on the sidelines watching carefully, making sure they didn't hurt themselves too badly.

"Your son's quite skilled." Arashi commented after witnessing Sasuke flip Naruto over his shoulder.

"Of course," Fugaku replied confidently, so confident that he wasn't even watching the match. "In a few years he'll be a splendid shinobi like his brother."

Arashi noticed Sasuke's slightly annoyed expression as he momentarily paused at his father's words; a pause that Naruto took full advantage of with a savage punch to the face.

"If you ask me he's shaping up to be even better than Itachi." Arashi hoped the comment would allow Sasuke to relax. Fugaku opened his eyes just as Sasuke took a kick to his stomach.

"He still has a lot of work to do if your brother's undisciplined attacks can reach him."

A sour scowl crossed Sasuke's face as he punched Naruto as hard as he could at his nose. An impressive string of profanities flew from Naruto's lips while he grabbed his face, stunning Sasuke motionless and earning Arashi a sharingan enhanced glare from Fugaku.

"I wonder where your brother learned such language."

"It's a mystery all right." Arashi's face became as red as his hair.

* * *

The two were silent for the remainder of the sparring match. By the end Naruto was sporting a black eye, bloodied nose, and a small bruise on his forehead. Sasuke had a busted lip and two bruises on his cheeks.

"Well done," Arashi lightly applauding the children, "Both of you, well done. Wouldn't you agree Fugaku?"

The surly Uchiha glanced at them with a perpetual frown, turning on his heels and leaving the dojo. Sasuke started after his father when a new voice sounded off behind them.

"I thought you both did really well."

Everyone turned to the new comer. A man, who looked like the vision of whom Sasuke would become stood before them, clad in his newly acquired ANBU black ops uniform. Itachi Uchiha was smiling, a rare sight for an Uchiha.

"Itachi!" Sasuke started toward his older brother but quickly slid to a stop. A confused look appeared on Itachi's face. "You're just going to flick my forehead again."

Itachi smiled as Arashi stifled a laugh and Naruto just looked uninterested.

"I promise I won't flick your forehead."

Sasuke sent him a slightly disbelieving look before he approached Itachi, only for him to poke Sasuke on the forehead with his index finger.

"I said flick, not poke."

Sasuke's expression soured as a loud laugh erupted from Naruto.

"So Itachi, I see you've made ANBU," Arashi remarked, quickly cutting off another argument between the two children. "Congratulations."

"Thank you, Arashi. I look forward to working with you."

"Oh, is that so?" Arashi responded, "So I guess you're the new guy I was informed to expect."

Itachi nodded in confirmation.

"Well then, I'll see you bright and early tomorrow. Let's go Naruto."

As they walked away from the Uchiha compound, Arashi felt a tug on his sleeve.

"Which one of us won, Arashi?" Naruto asked, grinning with dried blood under his nose.

Arashi smiled. "Sasuke."

Twin shouts of outrage could be heard all across the village as Itachi told Sasuke the opposite of what Arashi said.

* * *

Two years passed since that day. In that time, Naruto and Sasuke competed against each other in every class they shared.

While the two children were initially evenly matched, over time Sasuke's natural talents began to propel him past Naruto.

This frustrated Naruto to no end, and motivated him to work harder to keep up with his rival. Eventually, a form of mutual respect was born between the two children. That, however, didn't prevent them from constantly bickering over who was better.

"Sasuke, I challenge you to a shuriken throwing contest!" Naruto shouted as Sasuke started on his way home after class. The seven-year-old Uchiha turned to face his rival, who stood there with his normal goofy expression. "Come on, let's go Sasuke!"

Sasuke thought about the offer for a while._ 'Well, Itachi did say he wouldn't be able to practice with me today. And Naruto is pretty good.'_

He looked at Naruto again before smirking. "Sure, I'm down for some competition."

And so Sasuke led Naruto to the small area in the forest where he watched Itachi practice with his kunai knives.

The targets were placed all around a clearing, a few of which required ricocheting the knives off of each other in order to hit them. The young Uchiha grabbed two targets and secured them on a tree.

"Okay Naruto, the one on the left is yours, the right is mine. We have six throws, and the most shurikens stuck in the target wins."

"All right! Let's do this!" Naruto shouted, excitedly throwing his shuriken in rapid succession. Just like that, the game was on.

* * *

Sasuke jogged through the streets of the village several hours later.

"Stupid Naruto," He breathed as he rounded a corner. "Just doesn't know when to quit does he?"

Sasuke easily won the shuriken contest 6 to nothing, but Naruto kept insisting on having a rematch. Initially the rematches went over the same, but Sasuke noticed that after a few more rematches Naruto showed improvement. Before long, Naruto managed to tie with Sasuke 6 for 6. Finally, after at least 15 or so rematches, the sun began its evening descent.

"See you tomorrow Sasuke!" Naruto called when they parted ways, "Next time I'll beat you for sure!"

Sasuke smiled before replying, "In your dreams, maybe."

"Father's going to be furious with me." Sasuke lamented as the Uchiha compound came into view.

Once he was home, he quickly wished he wasn't. Bodies littered the streets of the compound, all of them freshly murdered by a sword.

"Wh…What is this?" Sasuke murmured in a quivering voice, unable to believe his eyes.

Sprinting through the streets, he discovered more and more bodies, until he finally came to his house.

"Father! Mother!" the boy cried, throwing the door open.

What he saw broke his heart. His mother and father lied dead in the center of the room, a pool of blood gathering around them. Slowly, Sasuke dragged his feet to the bodies.

"Father? Mother?"

The ravenette fell to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks. Disbelievingly, he reached out to touch his mother's cheek and his father's forehead. The skin was still warm. Sasuke wailed, burying his face into his father's back.

An eternity later, a creak in the floor pulled Sasuke's attention away from his parents. He shot to his feet, noticing a lone figure standing in the room's shadows. After a moment's confusion, Sasuke recognized the silhouette as his brother, Itachi.

"Brother! Who the hell did this?"

A surge of hope shot through Sasuke. Itachi would without a doubt track down his family's killers and bring them to justice! He would take care of everything!

A slight pain bit into Sasuke's shoulder as a loud THUNK was heard behind him. Shakily, he turned to see a shuriken sticking out of the door. Sasuke slowly turned back to Itachi, whom he noticed wielded a bloodied sword.

"Foolish little brother." Itachi murmured, emerging from the shadows.

He closed his eyes and slowly reopened them. Sasuke then got his second glance at the fabled Mangekyo Sharingan, and his first look at their terrible power.

* * *

When Sasuke came to he was in a bed. He immediately jolted up into a sitting position, and for a brief, wonderful moment, the night prior was only a nightmare.

A dull throbbing in Sasuke's shoulder, however, crushed him with horrifying reality.

His older brother Itachi, whom he'd looked up to and idolized, murdered not just their father and mother, but their entire clan.

Sasuke fought to keep his tears from flowing when he noticed he wasn't alone. Sitting off to the side in full ANBU gear was Naruto's older brother, Arashi Uzumaki.

"Hello Sasuke," he greeted, his usual good cheer absent in the wake of such a massacre. "I suppose it's pointless to ask how you're doing right now, isn't it?"

Sasuke didn't respond, his attention on his hands as they rested on his lap.

"I thought so."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Arashi spoke again. "I know nothing I say will make it any easier, but holding back your emotions isn't doing you any favors. It's better to let it all out now. No one would hold it against you if you cry."

Sasuke turned to Arashi, tears brimming in his eyes. The ANBU stood, crossing the room and attempting to place a comforting hand on Sasuke's shoulder, but the boy slapped his hand away.

Arashi nodded understandingly. "I have to go, Sasuke. You should go back to sleep."

The ravenette sniffed back a sob, nodding in agreement. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Once he was certain the boy was slumbering, Arashi left the room to find his teammates, Ayame Kazan and Hokori Hyuuga, waiting for him.

"How is he?" Ayame inquired.

"As you'd expect."

"No child should have to experience this!" Hokori exclaimed, her Byakugan reflexively activating "Please tell me that we're going after the bastard responsible for this!"

"Lord Hokage ordered us to bring Itachi back to the village to face judgment," Arashi confirmed, "Personally I think we should just bring back his head."

"He won't come peacefully," Ayame stated, "We may not have a choice in the matter."

"When do we leave?" Hokori asked.

"In an hour, " Arashi answered. "Gather whatever supplies you need and meet at the village gate."

His teammates nodded in agreement before dispersing. An hour later, the trio met at the village gate and commenced their mission.

* * *

_Arashi and his team pursue the renegade Itachi, but have they bitten off more than they can chew. Next time: Arashi vs Itachi_


	4. Arashi vs Itachi

Itachi's sharingan flared to life when he saw him.

Standing before him was a man wearing a black robe and an orange mask, with one hole for the right eye and a black flame pattern on its face. His long spiky hair shot up, left untamed.

Itachi knew underneath his mask was a powerful sharingan. Strapped to his back was a large war fan with a sickle attached by a chain.

"Where are you going Itachi?" the masked man asked, his voice deep and calculating.

Itachi glared in response, reflexively shifting his sharingan to their mangekyo form.

The masked man continued. "Well, aren't you being rude. First you ditch me after we slaughter the clan together, and now you won't even share your travel plans. Very well, how about a different question? Where do you think you can go?"

"There are several Uchiha hideouts throughout this country and several others," Itachi replied passively, "No one would ever be able to locate them all. I just have to cycle through them. When Sasuke's sharingan matures, I'll find him and take them."

The masked man humphed, and Itachi was sure he was smiling underneath the mask. "So that's it, then? Just hide under a bunch of rocks until your brother grows up and hunts you down? What do you plan on doing in the meantime? Twiddle your thumbs?"

The Uchiha wasn't going to dignify that with a response.

"How about instead of sitting on your hands doing nothing, you do something productive with your life?"

Itachi's curiosity peaked, but he'd be damned if he showed it.

"Such as?" he ensured his voice was an even monotone whilst asking.

"There's a small organization that I know of. Very exclusive; only accepts the best of the best, or rather, the worst of the worst. It's made up of S class criminals, much like yourself now. They take the kind of jobs no civilized ninja village would. Not even ANBU get jobs like these: extortion, mass murder, starting wars, genocide; these guys do it all and then some." The masked man paused to gauge Itachi's reaction.

The 13 year-old ANBU captain was as impassive as ever, though his mangekyo reverted back to a normal sharingan.

"The organization is recruiting right now, and I'm sure they'll discover you're a perfect candidate. I'll give you some time to think about it. I'm sure the massacre of your clan must be weighing heavily on your blackened heart."

"Are you done?" Itachi asked, "Because it seems that we have some company."

The masked man glanced around a bit before he caught the signs of pursuers. "I wonder how they caught up with us so quickly?"

"It surely wasn't because you wasted so much time flapping your lips." Itachi replied with a sour expression.

"Oh, so you do have a sense of humor."

* * *

"Any sign of him, Hokori?" Ayame asked as she, Hokori, and Arashi sped through the forest.

The three had been pursuing Itachi practically nonstop for about a day.

"I see him," Hokori replied, her Byakugan extending her visual range dramatically. They stopped their pursuit to catch their breath before confronting their quarry. "He's about 50 yards ahead of us. He's not alone."

Arashi blinked in surprise. "Who's with him? Someone from another village?"

Hokori focused for a moment, "Hard to tell; he's wearing a mask. But there's nothing to indicate where he's from."

"Hold on a second," Arashi flashed through the familiar hand seals for his sound amplification jutsu. Placing one hand over his ear, he pointed an open palm in the direction Hokori indicated.

'It's still damn good eavesdropping.' he noted with a smirk.

"…and I'm sure they'll find you a perfect candidate. I'll give you some time to think about it. I'm sure the massacre of your clan must be weighing heavily on your blackened heart."

"Well, that can't be good," Arashi muttered, conveying to his teammates what he'd overheard, "We have to do this carefully. I'll take point and try to keep them busy. Hokori, you sneak around and take out the masked man. Ayame, as soon as the masked guy goes down, use your teleportation jutsu to bring down Itachi."

When his teammates nodded, moving into position, Arashi took a deep breath, moving into view. "Good evening Itachi. Great night for a walk, eh?"

Arashi suppressed a shudder when both males turned to look at him. He used the brief moment of peace to survey their surroundings. They were in a small clearing, a few fallen logs scattered here and there. A little to the east was a small pond. The trees surrounding the clearing were dense with leaves. Hokori and Ayame would have no trouble staying hidden within them.

"Who's your friend, Itachi?" the masked man questioned, his voice making Arashi feel like a child.

"Arashi Uzumaki, the Maelstrom of Konoha," Itachi answered before speaking to Arashi. "Go home. You have no hope of capturing or defeating me."

The masked man made an exaggerated yawning motion before speaking again, "Well Itachi, it's getting a little too crowded here for my tastes. I think I'll take my…"

While he spoke, Hokori burst out from the trees. She fell rapidly toward the masked man and struck the center of his back with her open palm. However, instead of the masked man dropping to the floor as expected, she found herself going straight through him.

"…leave," the masked man paused as Hokori seemed to fly out of his chest. He turned to Itachi, "I expect your answer soon."

He started to disappear into a spinning vortex of chakra.

"Have fun," he said in a slightly sing-songy voice before vanishing completely.

* * *

Itachi paid the absent, mysterious stranger no mind as he slowly adjusted his stance.

"I won't tell you again, Arashi. Nor either of you, Hokori and Ayame," he started, raising his voice so Ayame could hear from her hiding spot, "You have no chance of defeating me. Go home now."

"You underestimate us, Itachi!" Hokori dashed forward, her Byakugan activating as she launched a flurry of gentle fist attacks.

Arashi moved forward as well, pulling a kunai from his pouch. At the same time, Ayame suddenly appeared above Itachi, her katana directed at him while descending.

The Uchiha remained motionless as his attackers bared down on him. Just before they connected, he struck. In one swift motion, Itachi turned just enough to avoid Ayame's falling blade, and delivered a powerful punch to the kunoichi's jaw. As Ayame was thrown back, he continued his swivel on one foot, lashing the other out to kick both Arashi and Hokori.

Hokori was the first to recover, moving toward Itachi yet again. This time Itachi met her charge and the two began furiously exchanging blows. Hokori couldn't land a hit due to Itachi's Sharingan, which predicted all of her attacks. However, he couldn't deliver a serious blow either on account of Hokori's skill in the Hyuuga Clan's Gentle Fist style.

While the Hyuuga and Uchiha fought, Ayame hurried to Arashi's side as he picked himself off the ground.

"Are you okay?" she asked, noticing blood on the side of Arashi's face.

"I'm fine," he replied, "Go help Hokori. Buy me some time."

Ayame nodded, teleporting into the fray. With his teammates keeping Itachi preoccupied, Arashi leapt to the center of the pond. Using his chakra to stand on the water's surface, he commenced a rapid pace of hand seals.

Meanwhile, Itachi was gaining the upper hand against Hokori. With a quick kick to her knee, he knocked the Hyuuga off-balance before bringing his knee to her nose. Hokori stumbled back as Itachi reared his fist to strike the kunoichi across her face, but he pulled the punch short to avoid being cut by Ayame's sword.

Now faced against two skilled ANBU operatives, combined with the fatigue he was still experiencing from killing his clan, the scales began tipping against his favor. His Sharingan was in overdrive keeping track of both Hokori's ferocious onslaught and the spontaneous attacks of Ayame.

And then just like that, they were both gone.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu!" Arashi shouted as serpentine dragons of pure water shot out of the pond, racing towards Itachi. The aquatic dragon opened its jaws and slammed the Uchiha into a tree. When the water subsided, the trio gathered around the body.

"Hokori, check him."

With a nod, the Hyuuga moved toward the body, only for it to disappear in a puff of smoke.

"I warned you all to go home." Itachi said from behind them.

Before the three could turn around, he grabbed a fistful of Hokori's hair, forcefully yanking her head back. Before her teammates could assist her, the Uchiha pulled out a kunai, driving it into Hokori's spine.

Her eyes blew wide in pain, mouth agape in a silent scream.

"Hokori!" Ayame yelled in alarm, swinging her sword at Itachi's neck with Arashi stabbing with his kunai.

Itachi dropped the severely injured Hyuuga to grab both of their wrists before their blades could touch him. Before Arashi could attempt to escape, Itachi's foot caught him under the ribs, launching him into the same tree that Arashi slammed his clone into. At the same time, Ayame escaped the mass murderer by teleporting out of his grasp.

Itachi glanced around for Ayame. "You know Ayame, there's something I've been wanting to tell you..." suddenly, he spun around, catching Ayame by her throat, "...you're predictable."

Itachi looked into her eyes with his Sharingan, preventing her from teleporting out of his grasp. Ayame's eyes glazed over as his genjutsu took effect. She crumpled to the ground just as Arashi pulled himself to his feet. With a disinterested glance, Itachi faced the remaining ANBU, weaving his hands through an unfamiliar set of hand seals.

* * *

Arashi scowled, watching Itachi copy his hand seals perfectly. The sequence wasn't long, since it only had five hand seals. They finished weaving the seals at the same time.

"Wind Release: Wind Claws." Arashi said, mostly for Itachi, as the fingertips of their right hands started emitting chakra. The chakra streaked down each finger, extending out an inch before sharpening to a razor's edge with wind chakra.

Itachi smirked at the name while Arashi rushed toward him, jabbing his clawed hand at his heart. The Uchiha spun around, scratching down the side of Arashi's face. A puff of smoke revealed a small log with five deep gouges in the bark.

Itachi turned as the ANBU slashed at his stomach, backing up enough to where Arashi's claws only maimed his grey flak jacket. Arashi followed up by striking at his face. Itachi's left hand shot up to knock away his clawed hand by the wrist, aiming a jab at his throat. Arashi in turn batted away his hand, countering with a right hook. As the two countered each other, Itachi started to notice his chakra was running low.

'_He wanted me to copy this jutsu,' _Itachi realized, backing away, '_This jutsu puts a constant strain on the user's chakra supply. The only reason he's able to use it effectively is because his chakra supply is substantially larger than normal.' _

Scowling, he released the jutsu.

"Figured it out, huh?" Arashi remarked, standing straight, "Pity, I was hoping you'd run dry before it sank in."

Itachi said nothing as the Uzumaki rushed forward, dragging his claws across the ground. "I'm gonna make you pay for what did!"

"For what?" he replied, casually stepping back to avoid his charge.

"Slaughtering my clan?" Arashi slashed at Itachi's neck.

"Torturing my foolish little brother by making him watch again and again?" Itachi ducked under the attack, striking Arashi in the stomach.

"For what I did to Hokori?"

Arashi stumbled back, quickly recovering to lunge forward. Itachi's hand snapped out to tightly grasp his wrist.

"Or for what I'm about to do to you?"

As he spoke, Arashi watched Itachi's sharingan rotate until it shifted into a three pronged shuriken.

* * *

Arashi clawed viciously at the water's surface. It was right there, just beyond the reach of his fingertips. But no matter how hard he swam, or how desperately he reached, he never came any closer to breaking the water. His lungs felt like they were on fire as the minute amount of oxygen inside them dwindled.

Above him, standing on the water's surface, was the man responsible for his current predicament. His friend and fellow ANBU operative, Itachi Uchiha, watched with practiced disinterest. Anger swelled within Arashi as he shouted at the traitor.

A _big_ mistake.

Arashi foolishly used up the last bit of air in his lungs while simultaneously flooding them with water.

'_This is it,'_ he thought as his eyelids grew heavy, '_I'm going to die here.'_

The revelation had a surprisingly calming effect on Arashi. He voiced his only regret to whatever god was watching. '_I'm sorry Naruto; I guess I won't be around to see you become Hokage.' _

With that final thought, he closed his eyes, resigning himself to oblivion.

When Arashi's eyes snapped open, he was surprised to find he was staring at a drowned version of himself. Looking up at the still uninterested Itachi, understanding dawned on him. The Uchiha must've caught him in a genjutsu with his Sharingan.

"Welcome to the Tsukuyomi world, where I control space and time," Itachi spoke from his spot on the water's surface, "For 24 hours you will know the helplessness and pain of drowning."

Determined to break the genjutsu, Arashi drew a kunai knife from its sheath to drive it into his leg. As causing pain to oneself was the easiest way to break a genjutsu, Arashi was more than a little surprised, not to mention annoyed, that the genjutsu persisted.

"It's useless," Itachi admonished, "Only someone with eyes like mine can hope to break the Tsukuyomi. Someone of your inferior bloodline has no chance."

Arashi blacked out once more.

He lost track of time shortly before he lost track of how many times he drowned. Scores of corpses floated around him, each bearing his face. Above him loomed Itachi, emotionless as ever.

"23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds remain."

* * *

_Itachi Uchiha has escaped. Sasuke is now an orphan and Naruto finds he might be losing his brother as well. Next time Loss_


	5. Loss

Naruto stared at his bowl of ramen, waiting for the hot water to complete its job and make the noodles edible.

With tired eyes, he turned his gaze to the empty chair across from him, imagining Arashi digging into his plate of food, telling him he needed to eat more than ramen if he was going to become a ninja. He thought of how Arashi departed on a mission a few nights ago.

* * *

"_Naruto, wake up." Arashi's voice whispered into his ear. _

_With a groan, the young child pulled his blanket over his head._

"_Five more minutes Arashi," he pleaded while curling into a ball, "I promise I won't be late for school."_

"_I only need a few minutes, Naruto." Arashi bargained, a small smile on his face, "Then you can sleep for the rest of the day." _

_Dazed, Naruto pulled himself up to a sitting position. _

"_Alright, alright," he yawned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. When his vision cleared, Naruto finally noticed Arashi was wearing his ANBU gear. "You're going on a mission?"_

"_Something's happened," Arashi started, "something terrible. I can't tell you what, but you'll find out soon enough." _

_Naruto opened his mouth to protest but Arashi cut him off. "Here's what I can tell you, Naruto. Sasuke is hurt. He will be needing someone to support him."_

"_What's wrong with Sasuke?" he asked, remembering their competition just the day before._

_Arashi considered telling him the details, but kept his mouth shut on the subject and went to the door. "Goodbye Naruto, I'll see you when I get back." _

_And just like that, he was gone._

* * *

It'd been about 4 days since, and Arashi and his team still returned from their mission to capture Itachi Uchiha.

Arashi was right; he learned about the terrible act committed by the man the next day when Sasuke didn't show up to class. Remembering Arashi's words that Sasuke would need someone to support him, the blond had kept an eye out for him as he went about his days, but he hadn't put much of an effort to search for him.

As Naruto started to slurp up his ramen, he decided that if Sasuke wasn't at school today, he'd go out looking for him.

* * *

Naruto fidgeted in his seat while Iruka gave his lesson about the transformation jutsu and its uses in various situations.

However, he ignored most of it due to the fact his attention was drawn to the empty seat at his right. Everyone was more or less in agreement Sasuke should take a few days off with all things considered.

Of course, most of the girls in the class were hoping that the heartbroken Sasuke would try to come to them for comfort. Surprisingly, Naruto found himself agreeing with the idea. Sasuke probably needed someone to talk to. Arashi even said as much.

"Iruka Sensei?" Naruto called out, raising his hand.

"Yes, what is it Naruto?" Iruka responded, more than a bit surprised the blond actually raised his hand instead of his usual outbursts.

"I'm not feeling too well," he lied, placing a hand on his stomach to appear convincing, "may I be excused?"

Iruka shot him a skeptical look, "Nice try Naruto, but you're not fooling anyone."

"But I'm not…" Naruto started, doubling over and throwing up all over his desk.

About five minutes later, he was sprinting through the streets, wondering if they realized he'd purposely triggered his gag reflex to make himself barf yet.

"Alright Sasuke, where are you?" Naruto muttered to himself, turning into an alley.

He tried to recall places he and Sasuke used for their competitions. The first one that came to mind was the spot in the forest where they practiced throwing shuriken a few days ago. When that lead turned out to be a dead end, he tried a field where they used to spar, only to find it empty as well.

And so, Naruto began to systematically check every place they ever sparred, argued, practiced, or hung around. Finally, he came to the docks where they'd practice their ninjutsu. It was where he found his friend, sitting at the edge of the dock, staring down into the water.

Naruto smiled as he approached the dock and called out to Sasuke. His smile faded as soon as he saw Sasuke's heartbroken expression. As he turned back to the water, the blond quietly sat down beside him. After a moment of awkward silence, Naruto spoke.

"Everybody's been missing you at the academy," he started shakily.

Sasuke said nothing, so Naruto continued. "They're all really worried about you. I am too."

The Uchiha's eyes flickered downward to his reflection.

"I heard about what happened with your brother and the rest of your family, and I just wanted to say that you're not alone."

Sasuke turned to face him. The young blond was shocked by the sheer hatred in his eyes. They'd changed to scarlet red, gaining a comma-like mark rotated around each pupil.

Naruto shuddered as, even if it was just a brief moment, he thought Sasuke would try to kill him where he sat.

"Naruto," he said, his voice seething with anger. "fight me."

* * *

Sasuke carefully watched for Naruto's reaction as he waited for his answer. The initial reaction was shock, followed very quickly by eagerness and what seemed to be moderate understanding.

The last remaining Uchiha kept his own expression grim as the blond agreed to his challenge. The two of them walked off the dock onto the road.

He glared at Naruto while he stood across from him, making the one-handed tiger seal Iruka had them make when they first sparred two years ago.

Naruto followed suite, and the two of them settled into their fighting stances. Something about the way the blond moved was off in Sasuke's eyes. His movements were slow, almost mechanical.

Predictable.

As he expected, Naruto was the first to move, charging forward with a straightforward punch. Sasuke took a half step to the left, avoiding the punch and ducking under the kick he anticipated.

Moving swiftly, Sasuke swept Naruto's leg out from under him, straddling him while lying on his back. Before Naruto could roll him off, the Uchiha grabbed his shirt's collar to punch him as hard as he could across the cheek.

Sasuke's sharingan allowed him to easily avoid the blond's flailing arms, landing another blow across his face.

And another, and another.

At this point, Naruto had stopped struggling, opting to focus on protecting his face instead.

Sasuke let his anger and hatred boil to the surface. _Why? _Why did it have to be him? Why did his brother have to betray him? How come Naruto got a loving brother who cared for him and he got a familicidal psychopath? What made him so _damn_ special? As his rage built, Sasuke moved to wrap his small hands around Naruto's throat, but at that moment he remembered his father's words.

"_Don't follow your brother."_

Sasuke ceased his beating, getting off of Naruto with nostrils flaring. He glared at the blond boy nursing his bruised, bloodied face, trying not to cry. Itachi's words flashed through his head, telling him of his potential, and of the terrible price he would have to pay for it. Now the opportunity practically gift wrapped itself for him.

Yet, instead of tearing the proverbial wrapping paper, the Uchiha found himself wanting nothing to do with it.

Naruto swore loudly as he got to his feet, but Sasuke wasn't listening. His eyes returned to normal while the other boy pointed an accusing finger at him, fighting to keep the tears from flowing.

The bitter anger he'd felt toward the blond but a few short seconds ago sputtered and died. He felt the tears before they emerged from his eyes. Like Naruto, he fought to hold them back, but they couldn't be stopped. So Sasuke turned and ran, as fast as he could. He wouldn't let Naruto see him cry. He wouldn't appear weak before him.

* * *

Sasuke sat in the center of his living room, hugging his knees to his chest and sobbing uncontrollably. In front of him were the taped outlines of his parents.

Again, he was hoping that everything that transpired was just a nightmare; hoped he would awaken soon and find his parents and brother enjoying breakfast in the kitchen. But he knew it wasn't a nightmare: he wouldn't awaken, his parents were dead, and his brother was still a monster.

So he cried, and cried, and cried some more. Sasuke cried so much that by the time he finally stopped he'd be surprised if he ever cried again.

When the tears finally stopped, he wiped his face clean, recalling his assault on Naruto.

"I almost killed him," he murmured, trembling in realization, "I could've killed him."

Sasuke glanced to the side, catching his reflection in broken shards of glass. He blinked slowly and when his eyes opened, he was shocked to find his eyes had turned red with a single tomoe at the corner of each pupil. His sharingan had awakened.

Sasuke was a true Uchiha now.

"With these eyes, I'll kill you Itachi." Sasuke swore, his hatred for his brother boiling to the surface.

He remembered his father's words about an even stronger set of eyes than the Sharingan: eyes that Itachi now possessed. Eyes that, according to his treacherous brother, Sasuke could possess as well.

If he killed his best friend.

Just a few short hours ago Sasuke almost murdered Naruto. But he hadn't. Sasuke stayed his hand and spared Naruto. Itachi told him to come for him after Sasuke obtained the Mangekyo Sharingan.

"No, Itachi. I'm done following your path." Saying the words aloud all but convinced Sasuke he was right.

His heart resolved on his goal. He would attain a power greater than Itachi's, but he would do it his own way.

'_But first,' _Sasuke thought, '_I should apologize to Naruto.'_

* * *

Naruto scowled, walking down the street to his home.

His eyes were blackened and swollen from Sasuke's beating, with blood flowing freely from his nose. The young boy cursed lightly under his breath, fumbling for his key.

Once he was inside, Naruto washed his face in the sink and shouted bloody murder as his eyes stung fiercely. After pulling out an ice pack to place over his eyes, Naruto flopped onto the couch. The boy continued to curse Sasuke as he drifted to sleep.

A knock at the door awoke him a few hours later.

He glanced at the clock, seeing that it was 9 o'clock at night. Grumbling, the blond rose from the couch to open the door. He was less than happy to see Sasuke standing at his doorstep.

The Uchiha opened his mouth to say something, but Naruto planted his fist over it in the form of a suckerpunch. Sasuke's head snapped back as he fell, the railing preventing him from crashing to the floor below.

His eyes flashed red for a moment or two before they returned to normal. Naruto cocked his fist back for another punch, halting when Sasuke offered the symbol of harmony.

Naruto's scowl subsided at the gesture and the little boy put his fist down. With a sigh, he locked his fingers around Sasuke's and completed the gesture.

"I guess you won that one." Naruto said, gesturing to his bruised face with a rueful smile.

Despite everything that happened recently, Sasuke found himself smiling as well.

"Naruto Uzumaki," a voice called from the street below.

The two boys glanced over the rails, spotting a young man dressed in a Chunin uniform.

The Chunin looked directly at Naruto, "Lord Third Hokage wants to see you immediately."

Naruto shared a worried glance with Sasuke before he followed the Chunin to the Hokage's manor.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi was at his desk when the report came in.

He'd been dreading it ever since Arashi Uzumaki and his team left in pursuit of Itachi Uchiha. He'd done all he could and sent what reinforcements he could spare: another ANBU team led by Kakashi Hatake.

From what the reports said, they were too late. Now he found himself doing the one thing he truly despised about his position: notifying the next of kin.

When Naruto was ushered into his office, the elderly Hokage offered him a friendly-if somber- smile. He couldn't help but still see Naruto as the sleeping baby he gave to the twelve-year-old Arashi seven years ago. The boy seemed wary of being called here at such an hour.

"Hello Naruto," Hiruzen greeted, gesturing for the boy to take a seat, "I apologize for calling you at such a late hour, but I felt you needed to hear this as soon as possible."

"This is about Arashi, isn't it?" Naruto asked, his voice surprisingly flat.

Hiruzen had to hide his surprise. He thought about what Naruto's teacher Iruka told him about the boy: loud, hyperactive, a bit abrasive at times, and a definite prankster on par with his old student Jiraiya, but also well meaning, and intuitive.

Naruto was the kind of student who would fail a test on paper because it was boring, but would succeed when physically doing what the test covered.

With all this in mind, Hiruzen realized that trying to sugar coat this news would do Naruto a disservice, so he was honest.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is."

And so Hiruzen told Naruto the unvarnished truth. Hokori Hyuuga and Ayame Kazan were found in a small battlefield, alive but unconscious. Hokori got stabbed in the spine, and would likely never walk again, while Ayame seemed to be all but unharmed save for a few scrapes and bruises.

Arashi on the other hand was nowhere to be found.

"What do you mean they couldn't find him?" Naruto said, leaning on the edge of his chair, tears threatening to break from his eyes.

"The recovery team split in two," Hiruzen explained, "One group got Hokori and Ayame to the nearest town for medical treatment while the other followed Itachi's trail. They thought that Itachi might've taken Arashi captive as a hostage."

Naruto was stunned into silence. Hiruzen walked around his table, placing a comforting hand on his shoulders. "I'm sorry Naruto, but until the other half of the team reports back, we have to assume the worst."

Tears flowed freely down Naruto's face as he stared at the floor.

Hiruzen pulled the boy into a hug and the blond proceeded to cry into his shoulder. The Hokage didn't offer comforting lies of reassurance, simply patting the young boy's back as he sobbed. Once he ceased crying, Hiruzen gently pushed him back into his seat.

"Your brother left something for me to give to you should anything happen to him," he turned to pick up a sealed box off his desk to hand to Naruto, "he said it was your inheritance as a member of the Uzumaki Clan."

Naruto stared down at the box, running his fingers over the swirling circle carved into it.

"It will only open for you, Naruto. All you need to do is give it some of your chakra."

Naruto looked up at Hiruzen, who gave him a warm smile.

"Thanks, gramps." The young boy told him with his head bowed.

* * *

_A year passes after Arashi's team failed their mission. Naruto and Sasuke are training hard for the future. Meanwhile a certain pink haired girl will make her presence known to her "future husband". Next time Inheritance of the Clan_


	6. Inheritance of the Clan

"Today's the day," Sakura muttered, waiting for her class to be dismissed for the day. "Today I finally get Sasuke's attention!"

She'd been waiting for this opportunity ever since the tragedy that befell Sasuke a year ago. When Sasuke finally started attending classes again, only that blond idiot Naruto didn't seem to get all of the various-and not too subtle-hints that he still wanted to be left alone. Everyone waited for Sasuke to knock his block off.

It wasn't long after it became apparent Sasuke wasn't going to hurt the moron that just about every girl in class-Sakura included-practically stampeded over Naruto to offer the apple of their collective eyes their condolences, each one hoping theirs would be the shoulder he cried on.

While some of the other boys laughed at Naruto's misfortune, Sasuke ignored the various girls around him, which of course only made them redouble their efforts. She watched as almost every day after school, Sasuke met with Naruto of all people and trained for hours on end. When they finished, Sakura tried to follow Sasuke home.

He caught her, asking her to tell the other girls to "stop bothering him outside of class," so she did, and instead of joining the others in fawning over Sasuke after school, she tried to shadow him as he kept training with Naruto.

It wasn't long until she figured out the arrangement.

Every day after class, Sasuke would meet with Naruto at a specified location for training. Monday they practiced throwing shuriken in the woods. Tuesday was taijutsu sparring. Wednesday was ninjutsu practice. Sakura made a note of how absolutely abysmal Naruto was at some basic jutsu, yet seemed to excel at stuff that should've been beyond him.

On Thursdays, the boys returned to the woods and-for lack of a better term-played hide and seek. More than once, Sakura almost got caught on those days, but luck was on her side and the two boys never discovered her spying on them, or they just never cared.

On Fridays, however, the two didn't meet. During the weekends, Naruto ran through the village, usually to escape the mob of angry victims of his latest prank, but Sasuke would simply disappear for the weekend.

Sakura knew that if she wanted any shot at Sasuke noticing her, she'd have to get his attention on Friday when he was alone. And today was that day, just as soon as Iruka Sensei dismissed the class, the game would be on.

* * *

As usual Naruto was the first one out the door when Iruka Sensei dismissed them. Ignoring the protests of other children as he sprinted past them, he made a beeline straight for his apartment, already thinking of the pranks he'd pull over the weekend.

The scrolls Arashi left him had greatly benefited his humorous antics by providing some very practical advice for a ninja. Every now and then, he'd get caught after the fact, but normally Naruto left very little evidence he was responsible for the deed, so Lord Third Hokage was more or less forced to let him go without punishment.

After all, one of the first lessons Arashi's scrolls taught him was "Even if everyone knows you did something, without proof they can't pin it on you."

Naturally, there were times when he slipped up and got caught, and boy did he get punished for those instances. Like one time, he snuck into the instructor's bathroom at the academy and applied a healthy dose of itching powder to the toilet paper, he'd stupidly forgotten his jacket and when they caught him, his punishment was using the toilet paper. His butt was itchy for a week.

When Naruto reached his door, he unlocked it, opened it, and ducked as a paint can swung out from where he rigged it and passed safely over his head.

Rule #2: "Always keep your home safe."

Catching the can on its return swing, the blond locked the door behind him and reset the trap. Wasting no time, Naruto opened the box of scrolls left to him by Arashi and grabbed the latest scroll he'd been able to open.

Arashi left him several different scrolls of varying subjects and instructions. The first one he'd been able to open was Arashi's will. In it, he stated all of his possessions belonged to Naruto, and explained how he made a deal with the Third Hokage for him to live in the apartment without worrying about payments until he was old enough to earn his own wage. This current scroll contained several different stretch poses to limber him up.

An hour later, the young boy placed the scroll back in the box and reverently set it on shrine he made for his brother. After offering a quick prayer, he grabbed his night bag, went out his window, climbed onto the nearby tree branch, closed his window, and reset his trap before climbing down the tree and making for the bakery. They'd purposefully given him moldy bread for the last time.

* * *

A huge fireball shot over the surface of the water.

Sasuke stood on the same docks where he'd perfected the technique. The same dock where he'd first awakened his sharingan. His eyes shone red as his sharingan watched the fireball die about 10 feet away.

Over the past year, the Uchiha had been focusing almost exclusively on training with his sharingan, trying to become accustomed to the tax it drew on his chakra reserves. It was surprisingly lower than what he expected, but his progress with new jutsu wasn't what he'd hoped.

Sasuke scowled, flashing though the hand signs for a higher level fire jutsu, only to have it sizzle and die shortly after leaving his mouth.

The boy cursed his current level of chakra as he let his eyes fade back to normal. Sasuke was displeased with his progress over the last year. He'd only mastered one new fire style jutsu: the Phoenix Flower.

His training with Naruto was helping him with taijutsu, but he had no one to help him with ninjutsu and genjutsu. Sasuke scowled, flashing through the hand seals for the Phoenix Flower and launching the multiple balls of fire across the water. As smoke wisped from his lips, a loud voice behind him cried out.

"Sasuke-kun, that jutsu was amazing!"

Said boy almost jumped out of his skin from the sudden praise. He spun around, finding himself face to face with the pink-haired girl from his class-and one of his stalkers-Sakura Haruno.

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked, slightly annoyed he hadn't heard her coming.

She blushed at the question, as if he'd just given her a flower or something. "I just thought you might appreciate some company other than that moron Naruto."

Her reply sounded rehearsed. She didn't notice the glare Sasuke was giving her, though it wasn't entirely her fault, given Sasuke glared at practically everybody.

"I would prefer to be alone right now," he replied, hoping Sakura pick up on the hint and leave.

Naturally, she did not.

"How about if I just stay here and watch you practice?" Sakura offered, deflecting Sasuke's attempt at a gentle dismissal, and instead offering a fairly reasonable suggestion.

Sasuke was about to dismiss her anyway, since he still didn't want anyone else to know about his sharingan. However, the more he considered it-and hated to admit it-the more he believed having her around might help him with his current problem. After all, Sakura did have the best written marks in class, maybe she knew something to make higher level jutsu less complicated. Besides, if she stood behind him, there was no way she'd see his sharingan.

"Okay, fine." Sasuke responded, turning back to the water and activating his sharingan.

He decided to start small with a simple fireball. As he expected, Sakura praised the move, and it wasn't long until she started talking about other things.

"I've waited so long for the opportunity to talk to you Sasuke!" she exclaimed as Sasuke performed the Phoenix Flower one more time, "Why do spend so much time with Naruto?"

Sasuke shrugged while grimacing; this was the part he'd been dreading. He hoped he could get the jutsu to work so he'd be able to avoid having to swallow his pride and ask for help. He started the sequence for the Dragon Flame Jutsu.

"I just don't see why you would want to bother hanging out with him," Sakura continued, "I mean his own _brother_ didn't even want to be around him."

Sasuke immediately stopped the sequence, tensing up at her insensitive statement. "What did you just say?"

It never occurred to Sasuke the events of the Uchiha Massacre and its aftermath wouldn't be common knowledge, including the details for why Naruto's brother Arashi went missing shortly after. Sakura was about to tell him what everyone thought happened, instead of the truth: that Naruto's brother vanished after pursuing Itachi to bring him to justice.

"Well my Father said Arashi finally came to his senses and abandoned Naruto..." Sakura explained nervously.

She'd never heard Sasuke speak with such barely contained fury before. Ever.

Sasuke took a deep breath and blazed through the hand signs for the Dragon Flame Jutsu. When the sequence was finished, he poured all of his rising anger into the justu and blew it all out. A giant stream of fire erupted from his mouth and barreled across the water, reaching the far shore. Sakura stared in horror from the sheer fury of the blaze. When the fires of hell finally died from Sasuke's lips, he turned to face Sakura, his sharingan still blazing.

"Arashi Uzumaki, didn't abandon Naruto," Sasuke began, "He left to catch my brother. He died trying to bring my murderous brother to justice. You tell your father to keep quiet about things that he can't possibly understand."

And with that, the last surviving Uchiha walked past Sakura, leaving the girl weakly trembling.

* * *

Sakura walked through the streets of the village in silence, mulling over what Sasuke told her.

"_I can't believe I actually said that about Naruto! I mean, sure he's loud and obnoxious in class, but he never really came off as the menace that my parents-and almost the entire village-make him out to be."_

While thinking, she noticed a rising dust cloud in the distance. Straining her eyes, she could barely make out a sprinting Naruto heading straight for her.

"Naruto, can I talk to you for minute?" She called once he was in earshot.

"Sorry Sakura!" he yelled as he passed her, "Can't talk now, maybe later!"

He never even slowed down as he turned into an alleyway. A few moments later, the local bakery owner ran by her.

"Which way did he go?" the man asked between deep labored breaths.

Sakura paused a moment, then proceeded to point straight down the street.

"Why, when I get that little brat, he's going to pay for each and every rat he let in my shop!" The man grumbled sprinting off in the direction Sakura pointed to.

She stood silent for a moment, trying to imagine what Naruto managed to pull off with rats apparently.

"What an idiot," the pink-haired girl muttered, continuing home.

Whether she was talking about Naruto, the Baker, or herself, Sakura wasn't sure.

* * *

_The time has come. Time for Naruto to leave behind the class room and take his first steps as a true ninja of the Hidden Leaf. Next Time. The Path of a Genin_

* * *

Author's Note: Well hopefully I wrote Sakura well. Was never really a big fan of how Kishimoto would give her a boost and then make her useless again and again, so hopefully I'll be able to make her a bit more useful while still keeping her, well her. Anyway as always hope you enjoy it and please leave a review... Seriously I determine whether or not people like these things based off those.


	7. The Path of a Genin

"Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me." Naruto scowled as Iruka announced that the test to determine if he were to become a genin would be the clone jutsu.

His teacher knew Naruto was completely hopeless with that jutsu. The blond wondered if Iruka was out to get him for his little act of vandalism the other day.

* * *

_Two Days Earlier_

Naruto was awake before his alarm went off. In a flash, he dressed himself and put a pot of water on the stove. While the water boiled, he busied himself by checking over his supplies: a very long rope, a few metal pulleys, a paintbrush, and a can of orange paint. He had several additional cans hidden closer to his target zone.

After Naruto put the ropes, pulleys, and paintbrush into his backpack, he put the dried ramen noodles into the boiling water. Three minutes later, his pack and paint can were by the door and the boy himself was enjoying a soothing bowl of instant ramen. Once he finished his early breakfast, he put the bowl in the sink, pulled on his pack, picked up the paint can, and leapt out his window to preserve the trap on his door as usual.

The sun wouldn't rise for another four hours, which meant he was going to have to hurry if he didn't want to get caught. Sticking to darkened alleyways, Naruto quickly made his way to the spot he'd hidden the other paint cans. After depositing the final can with the others, he set off to set the rope and pulleys so he could actually reach his target.

"Oh man, this is going to be priceless!" Naruto snickered as he pulled himself upwards with a can of brown paint.

Once he reached the desired height, he removed the lid from the can, dipped the brush into it, and set about painting the stone carving of the First Hokage's face.

When the sun rose, the first thing many the people of Konoha saw looking out their windows were the vandalized faces of the four Hokages, and a giant, crude drawing of Naruto's face next to the Fourth.

The words "I'm the greatest!" were written above it in bright orange paint.

* * *

Naruto didn't know why Iruka was still upset with him. Sure, Iruka and several other shinobi chased him through the village...again, but when they caught him they didn't make a big fuss and he cleaned all the paint off.

Hell, Iruka even took out for Ichiraku Ramen afterwards to show there were no hard feelings! So why did his Sensei insist on the graduation exam being a clone jutsu test? If it'd been any other basic jutsu, Naruto would've been fine, but _no!_ The graduation test just _had_ to be the single basic technique that had been the bane of ninja careers for years now.

Looking around the classroom, most of the other students were giving him not so subtle leers. Everyone knew Naruto was incapable of the clone jutsu. Sasuke gave him a look that basically amounted to "Bad luck." The blond caught Hinata Hyuuga giving him a sympathetic look, before she turned beat red and quickly looked away. Naruto wondered why she always did that.

"_Focus, Naruto. Worry about idle curiosities after you become a genin!" _

With that thought in mind, Naruto resolved himself. He _would _pass this test. He _would_ become a genin. He _would_ grow up to be the greatest Hokage Konoha had ever seen!

With his confidence restored, Naruto held his head high as he walked past Sasuke, who was returning from the exam room with a brand new Konoha headband tied around his forehead. The blond gave a cocky smile as he positioned himself before Iruka and his other teacher, Mizuki.

The two teachers looked at him expectantly as Iruka told Naruto to create two clones. And just like that, all of Naruto's confidence shattered.

'_TWO? I can barely make one, and they expect me to create TWO?!_ _No. Relax Naruto, you can do this. Just remember what Arashi's scroll said about the Clone Jutsu… SHIT I CAN'T REMEMBER! It's ok, it's ok. Just improvise. Imagine there are two more of you standing next to you.' _

These thoughts and many others passed through his head while he hesitantly moved his hands through the three seals. Ram. Snake. Tiger. Naruto then poured out as much chakra as he could, determined to fill the room with clones. A great puff of smoke filled the room. When it dissipated, Naruto was standing with a single, half-dead-looking clone a few feet beside him. Both Iruka and Mizuki stared in disbelief at the pathetic sight.

"You fail, Naruto." Iruka said in a matter-of-factly.

Naruto was about to unleash a stream of curses when Mizuki spoke.

"Well, he did manage to create a clone this time, Iruka. Maybe we could let him pass."

Hope blossomed inside Naruto's heart.

"Not going to happen, Mizuki." Iruka countered, the blossom wilting and dying. "All of the other students made two clones; Naruto was barely able to make one. I'm sorry, Naruto, but you don't pass."

* * *

After the exam was finished, all the students who passed went outside to be greeted by their parents. They told their children how proud they were and how their favorite foods would be made for dinner.

But off in one corner, far from the group of happy genin, Naruto sat alone on a swing. He could just make out two women commenting on how his failing the graduation was a good thing, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Naruto turned to look into the face of Ayame. She was pretty, Naruto supposed, though apparently Arashi found her to be positively stunning if those poems he found in his room were to be believed. She had a soft rounded face with a few freckles dotting her cheeks.

However, at present she wore an eye patch over her left eye after suffering an injury on a mission.

"Hey." She said simply.

"Hey." Naruto replied.

The two of them said nothing for long moment before Ayame broke the silence.

"Did you want me to take you out for some ramen?" She asked, clearly trying to lift his spirits.

Naruto always liked that about Ayame. Her solution to just about any problem Naruto had was to take him out for some ramen. After Arashi was officially declared dead because he'd been missing for over a year, Ayame took the young Uzumaki member to Ichiraku's Ramen to try and cheer him up. It didn't quite work, but he appreciated the gesture.

Over the last few years, whenever Ayame returned from a mission, she made sure to take Naruto-and sometimes Sasuke-out to Ichiraku's. Sometimes she even helped them train, despite the fact not even she was able to explain the clone jutsu in a way Naruto could understand.

In truth, being around Ayame reminded him of how much he missed hanging around her, Arashi, and Hokori. After Hokori got crippled, the Hyuuga Clan elders forbade her from leaving their compound in fear of her eyes being stolen or something like that. So, Naruto started to send her some flowers and letters so she wouldn't feel cooped up.

His first attempt didn't exactly go as planned. He'd asked Hinata if she could deliver them to Hokori. She fainted when he pressed the flowers into her hand. Since then, he just asked any Hyuuga he found walking through the village.

"Sorry, but today I'd like to be alone." Naruto stated, standing up from the swing set.

"I understand." Ayame said, full of sympathy. "You know where to find me."

Just like that, she teleported away, leaving Naruto to head home alone.

* * *

"Naruto," Mizuki called out as the boy walked down the street.

The young blond turned, looking at him questioningly.

"Can I speak with you for a minute?"

Naruto shrugged. "Sure, Mizuki Sensei."

"Try not to be too mad at Iruka," Mizuki started. "He doesn't want to fail you, but he also doesn't want you to be ill prepared for life as a ninja."

"But it's not fair, Mizuki Sensei!" Naruto started, "All of the other kids graduated and I work twice as hard as them! I even heard last year, a student graduated without knowing any basic ninjutsu."

Mizuki nodded as he recalled the student: Rock Lee. "Yeah I remember him, but do you want to know why we allowed him to graduate?"

Naruto held up his hands expectantly.

"It's because while he lacked in ninjutsu, he more than made up for it in taijutsu."

_Okay, time to start dangling rabbits for the little fox._

"Do you think you should've graduated?" The instructor queried.

Naruto nodded in agreement.

"Then I suppose I had better tell you a little secret." Mizuki beckoned Naruto to come closer.

"You see, I also failed the clone jutsu test," Mizuki's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "so what I did was I snuck into the Hokage Mansion, stole a scroll from his private library, and mastered a jutsu from that scroll. Then I went to the Hokage and performed the jutsu I learned. He made me a genin on the spot."

The smile on Naruto's face told Mizuki that he got him.

_Now I just have to wait. _

* * *

Naruto panted, setting the heavy scroll onto the ground reverently.

He'd done it. He successfully infiltrated the Hokage Mansion, stole a scroll from the library, and even "defeated" Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, with a simple transformation into a buxom, blonde, naked woman. A move he referred to as the "Sexy Jutsu." Now he just had sit down and master a jutsu from this scroll.

Unravelling the scroll, it read as followed: _These are the techniques and jutsu developed by Tobirama Senju, The Second Hokage._ Naruto skipped forward until he found the first jutsu in the scroll: The Shadow Clone Jutsu.

"Are you kidding me?!" Naruto shouted at the heavens, "Why does this jutsu haunt my every turn?"

* * *

Iruka lied awake on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

_A monstrous roar shakes the very ground around him as he looks up at the giant demon. A fox, larger than the Hokage Mansion, rampages across the village._

"_Stop! My parents are still back there!" A young Iruka shouts as he's carried off by a Jonin._

A knock at the door rouses Iruka from his memories.

"What is it?" the chunin asked.

"Iruka, we have to get to the Hokage's Mansion," Mizuki told him, sounding panicked, "Naruto has stolen one of the forbidden scrolls."

* * *

Naruto sat on the ground, breathing heavily. He was tired, dirty, and drenched in sweat, but it was all worth it. He had done it. He learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

The way the Second Hokage explained it made so much more sense than anyone else had. It's like he wrote the instructions down with someone like Naruto in mind.

The blond was still grinning when Iruka found him.

"There you are, you dolt."

Naruto laughed. "Hey, Iruka-Sensei! I found you."

A vein bulged in Iruka's neck. "I found you, you Moron! What're you doing out here?"

The child's face brightened. "I've been practicing this jutsu so you'll let me graduate!"

Iruka sent him a confused look.

"I learned a jutsu from the Hokage's scroll, so you have to let me graduate. That's how Mizuki Sensei said it worked."

"Mizuki?" Iruka questioned before the realization hit him like a thunderbolt.

In a flash, Iruka shoved Naruto away and turned to protect himself as half a dozen kunai knives buried themselves in his body. He slid backwards while Mizuki appeared on a high tree branch.

"Well, well, Iruka. I see you found our little demon." he paused when he spotted the blond possessing the scroll he desired. "Naruto, give me that scroll."

"No, don't give him that scroll, Naruto." Iruka coughed.

"What's going on?" the confused boy demanded.

"That scroll's filled with dangerous and forbidden jutsu," Iruka explained, "Mizuki used you to get a hold of it."

Said chunin laughed, "Naruto, are you really going to believe someone who's been lying to you your whole life?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You know the nine-tailed fox demon that attacked our village 12 years ago right?"

"Stop it!" Iruka shouted, struggling to stand.

Mizuki ignored him. "For twelve years, no one was allowed to tell you that you're the nine-tailed fox; that you destroyed the village and killed hundreds, including Iruka's parents. If it weren't for the sacrifice the Fourth Hokage made in sealing you in human form, you would've killed thousands more. The only mistake the Fourth Hokage made was not killing you."

Naruto stood there, numbed to the world around him.

"Haven't you ever wondered why everybody hates you for seemingly no reason? Why your own brother abandoned you?"

The blond failed to notice Mizuki pulled a giant shuriken off his back and was spinning it in his hand. He didn't notice Iruka was fighting to stand up and make it to him before Mizuki killed him. He didn't feel anything as Iruka knocked him to the ground and took a giant shuriken in the back for him.

He came back to himself when he felt warm blood drip onto his face. Looking up, he saw Iruka holding himself over him, blood leaking from his mouth.

"Why?"

"Because, I don't hate you, Naruto." Iruka answered, "The truth is, I used to be just like you: lonely. After my parents died, there was nobody there for me. So I acted like an idiot to get people's attention. But...I had no real friends."

Tears began to stream down Iruka's face. "But you're different Naruto; you're stronger than I was. When Arashi was gone, you reached out to another feeling your pain and forged a bond with them. I wish I was more like you at your age."

Naruto was speechless. He didn't know what to say to Iruka, so he did the one thing he could do. He crawled out from under Iruka and faced Mizuki. If Mizuki wanted this scroll so damned badly, he'd have to take it from Naruto's cold, dead hands.

"So the demon fox wants to play." Mizuki teased, hopping down from his tree.

Naruto didn't think about how much older Mizuki was. He didn't think about how much stronger Mizuki was. All he could think about was a single memory.

"_Arashi, why do people call me The Fourth's mistake?" _

_Arashi appeared sad at the question, and Naruto wondered why. His brother knelt next to him, pulling him into a hug._

"_Naruto, you were not a mistake. There's something I want to tell you, but you'll have to wait until you're older."_

Is that what Arashi wanted to tell him? That he was a monster? No. Arashi never treated him as such, and neither did Ayame, Hokori, Iruka, or Sasuke. They all treated him like he was a human being. So what if the rest of the village thought he was a demon? He'd just have to prove them wrong.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki: son of Takeda and Yukiwa Uzumaki, brother of Arashi Uzumaki. I swear on the honor of my clan and as a citizen of Konoha, I will crush you."

Mizuki stared, bewildered at the boy's proclamation. Naruto made two one-handed tiger seals, crossing them together in front of him. Iruka's eyes widened as he recognized the seal.

In an instant, over a thousand Narutos surrounded Mizuki, who gazed in astonishment at all of the clones surrounding him.

"Not clones; shadow clones. No illusions, but solid physical bodies." Iruka whispered in equal disbelief.

At once, the thousand Narutos descended upon Mizuki. A few moments later, the traitorous chunin lied on the ground, covered in bruises and welts delivered at the hands of Naruto's jutsu.

"I think I might've overdone it." The blond laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head.

Iruka smiled. "Naruto, come here for a second and close your eyes."

Naruto glanced at him quizzically before complying. He felt something get tied around his head.

"Congratulations on graduating, Naruto."

The boy's eyes shot open, his hand flying to the metal plate tied to his forehead. With a wide smile, he jumped into Iruka's arms and hugged him.

* * *

_So Naruto has finally become a genin. Now all that remains is for him to meet his team. Next time Team 7._


	8. Team 7

Hinata Hyuuga's heart pounded in her chest as she pulled on her coat. Today was the day. Today Hinata would be assigned to her team and they would begin their lives as Konoha shinobi.

Who was going to be in her team? Who would be their sensei? Dozens of questions raced through her mind before they were all trumped by one single, powerful question.

'_What if Naruto's in my team?'_

Hinata's face turned cherry red, an unconscious reaction that persisted ever since she saw him the first day at the academy.

Would he finally notice her? Would she faint like she did that one time she thought he was giving her flowers? She turned even redder at the memory, though it was more from embarrassment than her usual shyness. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts, Hinata didn't even notice the creak of wheels rolling up to her room.

"Hey there Lady Hinata."

The sudden voice nearly caused the pale lavender-eyed girl to jump out of her skin. Spinning around, Hinata found herself looking at Konoha's "Blind Hyuuga" and the Hyuuga Clan's "Cripple," Hokori. She sat in her wheelchair, wearing a white kimono and a blindfold around her eyes. Her dark hair hung past her shoulders, framing her pale face. Hokori's face was tilted up towards Hinata's as she smiled.

The Hyuuga heiress marveled at how the blinded woman was able to smile everyday despite what happened to her. After she was crippled by Itachi Uchiha, the Hyuuga Clan elders were split on what they should do. Because of her disability, many of them were afraid it'd be child's play for an enemy of Konoha or the clan to steal her Byakugan. To that end she was forbidden to leave the Hyuuga compound.

Most thought the best solution would be to place the curse seal on her so her Byakugan would seal itself if stolen, while some of the elders felt it would be better to simply euthanize and be done with it.

Hokori, however, took matters into her own hands and used a kunai to cut out her eyes to destroy them. It wasn't long until word spread to the other villages about Konoha's "Blind Hyuuga."

Now she was forbidden to leave to hide the Hyuuga's shame. Despite it all, Hokori managed to maintain a cheerful attitude; at least around Hinata.

"So Lady Hinata," Hokori started, "are you excited about meeting your team?"

"Actually I'm a bit nervous." Hinata answered, sitting on her bed.

Hokori nodded, "Understandable. I was nervous too when I became a genin. But then I was teamed with Ayame and Arashi and we became very good friends."

The mention of Naruto's brother brought all of her earlier thoughts rushing back, and she barely stopped herself from blurting out, "But what if I'm teamed up with Naruto and he doesn't like me?"

Instead what came out was, "But what if I just drag my team down?"

Hinata could've swore she heard Hokori mutter, '_Damn you Hiashi,' _before saying out loud. "That's what you're worried about? Hinata, trust me: you'll grow into a wonderful kunoichi. Even I can see that."

Hinata started to protest as Hokori fumbled in the bag she carried on her chair.

"But I'm…"

"What you are is a kind, caring young lady, who's going to make whoever she's teamed with very lucky." Hokori interrupted as she produced her old headband, tying it around Hinata's neck. "Now hurry up or you're going to be late."

* * *

**Naruto woke with a smile on his face. **

After getting dressed and eating his breakfast he leapt from the window with excitement only a child could exude. His smile stayed with him as he walked to the academy, occasionally touching the Konoha headband tied to his forehead, as if to make sure it was still there. It was his first day as a genin and there was absolutely nothing that could ruin his day.

The optimistic attitude stuck with him when Naruto sat down in the classroom where he suffered endless hours upon hours of boring lectures. A room he would never have to sit in again.

Two seats down from him sat Sasuke. Behind him were Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. At the entrance Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka were arguing over who got there first, and by extension who would get to sit next to Sasuke. Kiba Inuzuka and his dog Aka… something or other were at the front. Hinata Hyuuga was positioned on the other side of the room next to some guy in a big coat and black sunglasses Naruto didn't quite recognize. Looking at them and all of the other new genin in the room, the blond wondered which of them would be on his team.

"Hey Sasuke," he called, looking at his friend two seats over. "who do you think is going to be on your team?"

Sasuke turned to answer when **IT **happened. Later on in their lives if one were to ask either of the boys what the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to them was, both would only respond with **IT.** **IT **wasn't really anybody's fault. Just a domino effect leading to **IT**. In their argument Ino accidently shoved Sakura into another student. Said student fell off her chair and bumped against her twin, who dropped his pencil.

The pencil rolled down the aisle until yet another student stepped on it and slipped. The falling student inadvertently crashed into Naruto, knocking him forward. Naruto, toppling over, found himself tumbling on top of Sasuke, and for the briefest moment, barely long enough to count, their lips touched. For what it's worth it should be noted that if Sasuke activated his Sharingan, he would've been able to avoid **IT**, but hey, if normal hindsight is 20/20, then hindsight with Sharingan is 20/15.

Almost instantly the class went silent, with the exception of the two boys gagging in disgust. In mid-gag however, Naruto caught an overwhelming scent of bloodlust. And so the young blond turned to discover about every girl in the room, with the notable exception of Hinata who looked too shocked for words, stood glaring at him murderously.

"You're dead, Naruto." Sakura muttered gravely, cracking her knuckles.

* * *

About fifteen minutes and dozens of bruised knuckles later, Iruka walked in to find Naruto's beaten form lying on the floor with just about every girl in the room surrounding him. At the sight of their old instructor the girls all stopped their brutalization of the blond and returned to their seats, with Naruto barely dragging his sorry carcass back to his own.

Deciding not to question whatever the hell happened, Iruka sat behind his desk and spoke to his class.

"Let me just start by saying how proud I am for all of you graduating and becoming genin today. Today you will be placed into teams of three and will be assigned a Jonin instructor who will see to your training from here on out. Before I do, I would just like to say this: Don't think of your teammates as only teammates. They are your family now and they will be there to look out for you. Treat them well and they will do the same for you. Now then, let's get this underway. Team 1 will consist of…"

Iruka listed off the names of the teams. With each new team, Sasuke saw his list of potential team members dwindle. He knew he was this year's #1 rookie, which meant he would most likely be paired off with this year's dead last student, Naruto Uzumaki. How that guy managed to keep pace with Sasuke when they trained together, but completely fall behind the minute they were in the classroom, he'd never know.

With one slot firmly taken by Naruto, Sasuke wondered who would fill the third slot in his team. It was pretty much an unwritten rule that each team have at least one of both genders, so that meant their third member would be a girl. But which one? He hoped it wasn't one of his stalkers; they'd only get in the way of his training. To that end, Sasuke actually found himself wanting Hinata Hyuuga for their third team member, if for no other reason than she never once acted like she was remotely interested in him. That was when Iruka reached Team 7.

"Team 7 will consist of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki, and will be led by their jounin instructor, Kakashi Hatake."

'_Sakura?'_ Sasuke thought as the pink haired girl turned around and stuck her tongue out at Ino.

In truth Sasuke didn't know how to take it. Even after four years Sasuke was still a little upset at Sakura's careless words about Naruto. If Itachi taught him anything it was how to hold a grudge. However, after he told her off she'd been trying to treat Naruto better, recent ass whooping notwithstanding. Maybe she wouldn't get in the way.

* * *

Once Iruka finished listing off the teams, he dismissed them for an hour lunch break so they could get to know their teams better. To that end, Naruto did the only sensible thing one could do in this situation: he offered to take them to Ichiraku Ramen. If they couldn't bond over a bowl of Teuchi's ramen then they were quite frankly doomed. Hell, Naruto even offered to cover the tab just to break the ice.

To the blonde's endless surprise Sasuke blew him off saying, "I prefer to eat alone."

Sakura simply stated she was on a diet and planned on skipping lunch today. When Naruto told her skipping meals was unhealthy and she wasn't large enough to justify a diet, she responded by punching him straight in the nose while calling him an insensitive moron. And with that, Sakura stormed out of the room, leaving a dazed Naruto and a confused Sasuke.

"Why don't you ever get beaten up like I do?" Naruto asked from his position on the floor.

Sasuke shrugged before saying, "A switch in my brain that tells me when to keep my mouth shut."

"Wish you would've used that earlier, then." Naruto groaned as he sat upright.

A vein in Sasuke's neck pulsed as he kicked the blonde square in the face, right where Sakura punched him.

"That's exactly what I was talking about you idiot." Sasuke muttered as he too stormed out of the room.

Naruto lied on his back as some of the other genin started laughing at his misfortune.

"This is the beginning of beautiful tragedy."

The blond heard one of them whisper to their teammates. He couldn't help but agree as he plotted his revenge.

* * *

'_Listening to Ino complain endlessly about how unfair life is, is seriously becoming such a drag._' Shikamaru thought as he watched the clouds float by.

Next to him, Choji was practically attacking a bag of potato chips like a ravenous beast. Ino on the other hand was pacing back and forth in front of them complaining about how Sakura-or as Ino had been calling her for the past fifteen minutes, "Billboard Brow"- got to be in a team with Sasuke while she was stuck him and Choji in Team 8.

Shikamaru honestly didn't know why she was surprised. Their fathers were all teamed together, as were their grandparents, and so on and so forth. Quite frankly it was ignorant of her to think they wouldn't be teamed together when their clans had basically been teamed up since the founding of Konoha.

The lazy Nara let out a sigh when a blur of orange caught his eye. Sitting up, he caught a glimpse of Naruto sneaking up to the window where Sasuke was eating his lunch.

"What's he up to?" Shikamaru whispered, apparently loud enough for Ino and Choji to hear because they turned to watch as well.

At that moment Naruto leapt through the window and crashed into Sasuke. The two quickly rolled out of sight and Ino practically shattered Shikamaru's eardrum with her screech of rage. There was about ten seconds of sounds of struggle before Sasuke emerged from the window and left.

"Looks like Sasuke won." Choji commented before returning to his chips.

"Of course he did," Ino boasted proudly, "there's no way that idiot Naruto could stand a chance against my Sasuke."

"Then why did he leave through the window?" Shikamaru asked.

His two teammates looked at him inquisitively.

"If Sasuke won, why didn't he leave through the door? Or why would he leave at all instead of just tossing Naruto out?"

"Are you suggesting Naruto managed to beat Sasuke?" Ino laughed.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes at her biased opinion of Naruto and Sasuke's abilities. He considered arguing the point with her…but that would be too much of a drag. Had any of them investigated the room, they would've found Sasuke bound and gagged on the floor, working to get free of his bindings.

* * *

Sakura sat on a bench doing her best to ignore her growling stomach.

'_Stupid Naruto and his stupid mouth.' _

Why couldn't the moron just keep his damned opinions to himself? Though looking back, he had a rough day. First with the…_incident_ and the subsequent beating, then her rather impressive right hook into his nose.

'_I should probably apologize for making him my punching bag for the day.' _

She was about to stand up and go find him when she saw Sasuke staring at her from under a tree. She couldn't help but blush as several…hazy thoughts made their way through her mind. Each one getting an approving '**Hell Yeah!**' by Inner Sakura.

"Hey Sakura," Sasuke said, making his way over. "mind if I sit with you?"

"Of course not, Sasuke." Sakura smiled, while Inner Sakura cheered victoriously, '**Oh Yeah! Score 1 For The Big Noble Brow! 0 For The Tiny Ass Waist**'

When Sasuke took his seat, Sakura restrained herself from trying to kiss him right there.

"So, looks like we're on the same team." She started weakly.

'**The Hell Was That? He Already Knows We're On The Same Team Dumbass!**'

"Looks like it." Sasuke replied. "You, me, and Naruto."

There was a bit of an awkward pause.

"So what do you think of him?"

Sakura paused. "Of Naruto?"

Was he testing her? She remembered that day four years ago. Considering the question for a few moments, she made sure she answered with her thoughts, not something regurgitated from her parents.

"He's a loud, obnoxious moron who spends way too much time coming up with ways to torture people than is healthy,"

Sakura didn't notice the slightly dejected look Sasuke got with each addition to her opinion of Naruto.

"But he's also pretty nice when he's quiet, and between you and me, I think he has a crush on me." Sasuke perked up at that. "What makes you say that?"

"Earlier when he told me that skipping meals wasn't healthy, there was a bit of a twinkle in his eyes. It's too bad I'm not really that interested in him. He's got beautiful eyes."

"I wouldn't know anything about that." Sasuke chuckled nervously. "Who are you interested in, then?" Sakura looked at him shyly as she leaned in closer.

"The boy I'm interested in is…" the pinkette closed her eyes, puckering her lips slightly, "…you."

It was at that moment that Sasuke's stomach roared in protest of something and his face dropped. Beads of sweat trickled down his face as his eyes went white.

"Crap." He moaned, while thinking, '_Literally. Crap.' _

Holding his stomach, Sasuke shot up from the bench and sprinted to the nearest restroom.

"Aw, he's shy." Sakura whispered.

* * *

Making it to the restroom with a photo finish, Naruto dropped the Sasuke disguise, along with his pants, and sat on the toilet.

"Man that was too close."

Both in terms of making it to the toilet and in the case of his "little prank" on his teammates. If he went through with it and they found out...well, they might have to argue over who gets to do the deed, but Naruto would be as good as dead.

"Now how do I fix this?"

* * *

**Sasuke, surprising even himself, wasn't really upset after he escaped Naruto's ropes. After the kick he gave the blond earlier, he was willing to call it even. However, their lunch hour was nearly up, so he went to find his two teammates before returning to the classroom. **

As he walked down the hallway, he passed Team 10 consisting of Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and…and…Shino…the bug guy.

"Hey mister Uchiha," Kiba said as he passed, "how's it feel to be teamed up with a complete loser?" Hinata looked like she was about to object, but stopped herself. Kiba didn't notice.

"Beats me. Why don't you ask your teammates?"

Hinata looked mortified that Sasuke had dragged her into this, while Shino remained silent. Kiba on the other hand turned beat red.

"What was that Uchiha?" he barked, his little puppy joining him.

Sasuke was perfectly willing and able to trade banter with Kiba all day, hanging around Naruto prepared him well for that, but as it was he really had to find his teammates.

Turning to Hinata and Shino he asked, "Have you seen my teammates?"

"Uhm. Sakura's outside on a bench," Hinata said pressing her index fingers together, "but we haven't seen Naruto."

"Thank you."

Completely ignoring Kiba's protests, Sasuke proceeded to collect his pink haired teammate.

Sure enough, Sakura was right where Hinata said she'd be. When the pink-haired girl saw him approach, she shot to her feet, waving him over.

"Hey Sasuke! Finally work up your courage?"

The Uchiha had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, or why she was leaning forward with her lips puckered out.

"Where's Naruto?"

Confusion bloomed across Sakura's face. "Huh? I don't know. Probably pranking somebody. Why? Did he do something to you? That moron, just wait till I get my hands on him."

"No he didn't do anything; it's almost time to get back to class." Sasuke replied, wasting little time. "You should get back. I'll find Naruto."

Having concluded his conversation with her, Sasuke departed to hunt down the troublesome blond.

He could've sworn he heard Sakura whisper, "But what about our kiss?"

* * *

Naruto heaved a sigh of relief as he flushed the toilet. After washing his hands, he opened the door only to crash his head against Sasuke's, their lips centimeters apart before they fell away from one another. '_Whew, that was close.'_ Was the shared thought between them.

Naruto looked at Sasuke incredulously and pointed a finger. "How'd you escape?!"

Sasuke, for his part, gave Naruto one of his most condescending looks. "Every ninja should be an escape artist."

Naruto readied himself for Sasuke's retribution. Only it never came.

"Come on we gotta get back."

"Aren't you mad?" Naruto asked, regarding him with suspicion.

"I'll consider us even for that kick I gave earlier. Now come on."

Naruto shrugged and started to follow Sasuke…until his stomach roared in protest.

"Oh no not again," he groaned before running back to the stall. "Why is this happening to me?!"

Sasuke just stared at the now occupied stall and shrugged. "He'll be out eventually."

* * *

Meanwhile back at Naruto's apartment, Hiruzen Sarutobi and a silver-haired jonin with his headband covering his left eye examined Naruto's living quarters. They eyed the several traps Naruto placed with veiled interest.

"Well he doesn't lack for creativity," The jonin commented, picking up a milk carton. "but his milk is expired. If he had this he would be running to the bathroom all day."

What kind of person sets up this many traps, but doesn't check his dairy products?

* * *

**Omake**

"And this is where Naruto lives." Hiruzen said guiding Kakashi to a plain and unassuming door. Kakashi had already visited the homes of Sakura and Sasuke. They tried the door knob and to their surprise it was unlocked. They slowly opened the door and heard the sound of ropes being pulled through pulleys. When the door was completely open they heard something snap and before either of them could react a water balloon shot through the air and slammed into Kakashi's face. Hiruzen stopped himself from chuckling at the jonin's misfortune until a foul smell reached his nostrils.

"This isn't water." Kakashi muttered, white eyed. Hiruzen burst out laughing.

* * *

_And so Team 7 is formed. But what will experience with their new sensei be? Next time Kakashi Hatake: A Tale of Two Bells._


	9. Kakashi Hatake: A Tale of Two Bells

**First off I would like to apologize for the extended delay. School and work have been keeping me busy and don't leave me with a lot of free time. That said I was also very unhappy with how nine turned out so without further ado here's the new and improved chapter nine. Hope you all enjoy.**

* * *

Out of the ten teams Iruka announced at the beginning of class, nine of them were gone. Team 7 sat alone in their old classroom, waiting for their Jounin instructor, Kakashi Hatake, for about an hour. It was becoming painfully clear the man was no closer to showing up, either. Naruto, having fully recovered from his unfortunate run of diarrhea, grew increasingly impatient with each passing second, and started pacing across the room 30 minutes in.

'_Unbelievable! My first day as a Genin and I spend the first half of it glued to a goddamned toilet seat, and now I'm wasting the second half of it trapped in this damned room because my Sensei is late.' _

Several other thoughts raced through his mind until he came to a realization. He was going to have to set a trap for the tardy Jounin and teach him a lesson. Looking around the room, Naruto spotted a chalky eraser resting on the shelf of the blackboard. Snickering to himself, he snatched up the eraser and dragged a chair over to the door.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked, warily watching the orange-clad genin.

From his seat, Sasuke watched the exchange as Naruto told the girl his plan. Utterly ridiculous. As if a Jounin, an elite shinobi, would fall for such a childish trap. When Sasuke voiced his claim, Sakura instantly agreed with him and called Naruto an immature brat, although Inner Sakura was hoping it would work.

"Hey, it's the best I could do with these resources!" Naruto defended, "If this was my apartment the man would have a balloon filled with piss flying at him for being so late."

Both Sasuke and Sakura turned green at the thought of being pelted with a balloon filled with Naruto's piss. Sakura was about half a second from clocking the blond straight in the jaw before the door started to slide open.

A man with spiky silver hair, face concealed by a mask, and his left eye covered by his Konoha headband stepped inside. The eraser fell straight onto the man's head, bounced off, and landed on the floor. Naruto pointed and laughed at his "victim", while Sakura and Sasuke just looked utterly flabbergasted it actually worked.

The silver-haired man, glanced down at the eraser before plucking it off the ground. After examining it and the three children in the room, Kakashi spoke.

"Well, my first impressions of you three is," his voice was calm and almost uncaring, "I hate all of you."

* * *

After their brief introduction in the classroom, Kakashi led his three charges to the rooftop where he interviewed all of his potential students. He sat them down on some steps, casually leaning against the railing across from them.

"Well, how about you guys introduce yourselves?"

Sakura spoke first. "What do you want to know?"

Kakashi glanced at the girl and shrugged. "Names, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, you know, stuff like that."

"Hey. How about you introduce yourself first?" Naruto piped up. "We already know each other, you're the stranger around here."

"Naruto, shut up." Sakura hissed.

"Fair enough I suppose. My name is Kakashi Hatake. There are a lot of things I like and dislike. I have a lot of hobbies. As for my dreams for the future, well, quite frankly that's none of your business."

The three genin all looked at one another.

"So all we got out of that was his name?" Sakura quirked a brow..

Before either boy could respond, Kakashi cut in. "All right, now it's your turns. Let's start with you."

Sasuke looked up to see Kakashi staring pointedly at him. He momentarily considered his responses.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, there's not really much I like, and there's really only one thing I hate. My dream is more of an ambition: to restore my clan and kill the man who brought it down."

There was a long pause as everyone recalled the man Sasuke mentioned: Itachi Uchiha.

'_I figured as much._' Kakashi nodded, swerving his focus to Naruto.

"And you?"

Naruto perked up, excited at the prospect of someone wanting to actually know something about him.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like eating ramen, setting traps, and playing pranks. I hate the way most people treat me, like I'm some kind of monster, or just flat out ignoring me."

Sakura blushed a bit as the bitter memory of her confrontation with Sasuke replayed in her head. "I have quite frankly too many dreams to count but I've narrowed it down to two for you. My first is to one day become the greatest Hokage Konoha has ever had and show people once and for all that I'm not worthless."

"And the second?"

"I want to help Sasuke bring down the man who killed his clan, and who killed my brother."

That caught everyone off guard, but no one moreso than Sasuke. For the past five years, after all the times Sasuke and Naruto trained with each other, the blond never once said anything about wanting to bring down Itachi. Instead, he always talked about the various different pranks he pulled or would pull. The thought Sasuke now had an ally in his fight to kill Itachi brought a small smile to his face, which he quickly hid.

For his part Kakashi hid his surprise quite well, the mask covering his face certainly helping. Still, the more the Jounin thought about it, the more it made sense.

"And finally, the girl."

Sakura blushed. When Kakashi first placed the question her responses were simple. Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, with a mention of how she disliked Naruto's immaturity, though that was mostly because he made the best reactions when she criticized him. Hypocritical, she knew, but still funny. However, after hearing Sasuke's and Naruto's answers, she was glad Kakashi selected her last. It gave her time to reconsider and not appear as a shallow witch who only cared about one thing… like Ino-pig.

"My name is Sakura Haruno, I like reading and studying, I dislike it when I come across something I can't understand. My dream for the future is to become a strong kunoichi and hopefully fall in love."

Not perfect, but miles better than her first draft. Kakashi seemed to agree, which led Sakura to wonder if he let her go last on purpose.

"I'm sure you will." he said before addressing them all. "Now that the introductions are out of the way, we are done for the day. Tomorrow we start our first set of duties. Survival training." All three of the kids looked confused at the declaration.

Sakura raised her hand like a diligent student. "Um, Kakashi-Sensei, why is our first exercise survival training? We've already had plenty of that at the academy."

Kakashi chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Naruto scowled.

"It's just that, you guys are going to freak out when I tell this next bit."

"When you tell us what?"

"Well firstly, tomorrow I'm going to be your opponent. Secondly, out of the 30 graduates, only 9 will go on to become full genin. All of the rest will be sent right back to the academy. This 'survival training' is your final test. And it has a 70 percent dropout rating."

A pin dropping in the silence that followed could be heard as clear as day.

"What?!" Naruto shrieked, "Then what the hell was the whole graduation for?!"

"That was just to weed out the truly hopeless cases." Kakashi explained, handing out sheets of paper. "Bring all of your equipment to the training field tomorrow morning at 7. Oh, and you'll want to skip breakfast, otherwise you'll probably throw up."

* * *

Once Kakashi dismissed them, Naruto suggested for the second time that day, they all go get some ramen together. This time his two teammates agreed to the proposition and together the three potential genin made their way to Ichiraku Ramen. Teuchi and his daughter greeted them with warm smiles when they arrived.

"Oh, Naruto! Will it be the usual today?" Teuchi asked without looking up from his cooking.

"Yep, thanks Teuchi." Naruto replied as way of greeting.

It was then that Teuchi's daughter Ayame noticed the others.

"And what will your friends be having?"

Sasuke took a moment to look over the menu before settling on the beef ramen. Sakura on the other hand politely declined on account of her diet. However, her virtually roaring stomach prompted Naruto to order her a large bowl of pork ramen. Everyone ignored Sakura's protests and a few minutes later the three of them were enjoy steaming hot bowls of ramen. The three ate in silence until Sasuke said the one thing all of them were thinking about.

"What are we going to do about tomorrow?"

The question weighed heavily on them. A test with a 70 percent chance of failing. What kind of test would it be? How could they possibly prepare themselves for something they knew virtually nothing about?

"Let's start with what we know about the test." Sakura suggested. "We know Kakashi-Sensei referred to it as a survival exercise, he said he would be our opponent, and he told us to meet at the training field at the edge of the forest at 7. So what does that tell us?"

"It tells you that you guys are in for a heap of trouble." A voice called from behind them.

The trio turned to Ayame Kazan standing right behind them.

"So I hear that you guys got stuck with Hatake. I'm sorry to hear that."

"Why's that, Ayame?" Naruto asked while Sasuke and Sakura exchanged confused glances.

Ayame chuckled, taking the seat next to Naruto. After giving a brief nod to the ramen chefs across the counter, the two started preparing her a bowl.

"I'm guessing he told you about the tests' dropout rating. What he didn't tell you is his personal failure record."

"His personal failure record?" Sakura frowned.

"Kakashi's been offered the chance to teach dozens of genins. He's failed every single group he's ever tested."

The children were silent as the chopsticks fell from Naruto's numbed fingers.

"He fails all of his students?" Sasuke asked, ending the silence.

"Every single one. None of them ever measure up to his standards. To be honest, another Jounin and I started placing bets on whether or not he might actually pass a team or not. I win every time."

Despair settled down over the children. Naruto stared down at his half empty bowl of ramen, struggling to come to grips with reality. Kakashi Hatake always failed the teams he's assigned. Did that mean he and his team were already doomed to go back to the academy?

"No," he whispered.

The others gazed at him expectantly. The blond pointed at Ayame.

"You say Kakashi always fails his students and that you always bet that he does? Well, I'm going to make him pass me and tomorrow you're gonna lose your little bet."

At Naruto's words Sasuke felt his doubts begin to disappear. "That's right. Tomorrow, no matter what it takes, we'll pass whatever Kakashi Hatake throws our way."

Sakura nodded in agreement, although she still had her doubts. She knew the only way they would pass was if they worked together. They then departed for their homes to get a good night's sleep.

Left alone, Ayame watched them go as Teuchi placed her bowl of ramen on the counter. "I'm gonna lose my bet, huh? Those idiots. I'm betting on them."

* * *

The next morning, Team 7 all met at the training field at the specified time, fully expecting to see Kakashi waiting for them to arrive. He was not. In fact, Kakashi wouldn't arrive for another two hours, giving the three of them time to come up with a few strategies.

"Good morning, children." Kakashi greeted cheerfully upon arrival.

"You're late!" both Sakura and Naruto shouted while Sasuke glared. Kakashi ignored their angry shouts and pulled out a clock.

"This is set to ring at noon. You have until then to complete this assignment."

"And what is the assignment?" Sasuke asked, eager to make good on his words from the night before.

Kakashi held up two small silver bells. "Simple: take these from me. The one who doesn't get a bell will be tied to one of the stumps behind me and will be forced to watch as the rest of us eat our lunches. Additionally, the one who fails to get a bell also fails the test and will be sent back to the academy."

The three genin stared dumbly at the Jounin's latest statement.

"Feel free to use any and all techniques you can. If you aren't trying to kill me, you won't succeed."

"Wait a second!" Naruto shouted, "If there are only two bells, why do you bother putting us in teams of three? You're screwing us over before we even start!"

"Only a fool expects life to be fair to them." Kakashi tied the two bells to his belt. "Now then, when I say so, the exercise will begin."

He looked at his three potential students, all glaring back at him with determination.

"Go."

The ninjas before him vanished.

* * *

"A ninja's most vital skill is the ability to hide without being seen." Kakashi said to an empty field.

He glanced around warily. "Although it seems they have that one down at least."

What he didn't say was he had a pretty good idea where they all were. Sasuke hid in a tree directly behind him, Sakura was laying under some bushes, and Naruto… was standing right in front of him for all the world to see.

'_Maybe I spoke too soon.'_

"Alright old man, let's go! You and me!"

"Shinobi lesson 1, taijutsu." Kakashi sighed, reaching into his pouch.

Naruto took a step back before he face vaulted at the sight of what Kakashi grabbed. His favorite book, Make Out Paradise, written by the legendary Toad Sage himself.

"What is that?"

"It's a book." Kakashi replied, turning to the page he marked. "Oh don't worry about me, you don't really pose much of a threat whether I'm reading it or not. Besides, I have to know what happens next."

Naruto turned beat red, charging forward. "I'll fucking show you what happens next!"

Kakashi stepped away from a punch and caught its follow up before tossing Naruto to the side. He then ducked under the following kick, smiling as Naruto exposed his back to him. Memorizing his page number, Kakashi shut the book and made a hand seal. Tiger. A trace of chakra shot out of Kakashi's fingertips. Sakura shouted a warning from her hiding spot. Too late.

"Konoha's most sacred, hidden taijutsu technique." Kakashi announced as he shoved his fingers up Naruto's butt.

"1000 Years of Death!"

Before any of them knew it Naruto was flying through the air at great speed before landing in the river. Kakashi returned to his novel.

* * *

'_Well, that was absolutely humiliating.' _Naruto thought, sinking to the bottom of the river, '_But at least he's right where I want him.' _

He made some shadow clones and had one swim a little further down the river before he surfaced, pulling himself back onto the shore.

"So, ready for round 2?" Kakashi asked, still reading his damned book.

Naruto spat out some river water, standing up to point at him defiantly.

"Just you wait! I'm going to pound you into next week!"

Four shadow clones burst out of the water behind him.

Kakashi sighed as the five Narutos bore down on him. "I guess Arashi never taught you about attacking stronger opponents."

He moved to engage the blond and his clones. The fifth clone who swam up river made his presence known, latching onto the Jounin's back. The clone distracted him long enough for the other four clones to dog pile him. With the Jounin pinned, Naruto took the opportunity to grab one of the bells. His wrist was caught in a grip like a steel vice before Kakashi forced himself to his feet, sending all six Narutos flying.

"Sasuke, now!" Naruto called, soaring through the air.

He pulled on a thin metal wire. A ball of fire shot out from Sasuke's hiding spot as the wires planted by Naruto's clones tightened around Kakashi's body. He was able to briefly make out a surprised expression from Kakashi's visible eye before the fireball enveloped him.

"All right! We got him!" Naruto celebrated as the fire cleared, revealing a scorched log.

"...Or not." he amended, quickly scanning the area around him.

A shiny glint caught his eye and Naruto saw one of the bells lying on the ground next to a tree.

"Hey guys, the idiot was in such a hurry to escape he dropped one of the bells." Naruto announced, approaching the shining object.

Stopping just short of it, he made a shadow clone to retrieve the bell. The clone was hoisted up into the air by a rope around his ankle.

"I thought so." Naruto commented as his clone cursed.

Wary of a second trap, he picked a branch off the ground and carefully pulled the bell towards him with it.

"Well that's one down," Naruto shoved the bell into his pocket. "and one to go."

As he left to find his teammates, Kakashi watched from his hiding spot, smiling under his mask.

* * *

"All right, so we got our hands on one of the bells. Now we need to get the other one. Any ideas?" Sasuke addressed the team as they met deep in the forest.

Glancing back and forth between his two teammates, he waited expectantly for either of them to come up with a plan like the one that got them their first bell. That plan had been a collaboration between Sakura's logical thinking and Naruto's inherent ability to improvise. Sakura came up with the basic plan: Naruto had to restrain or distract Kakashi long enough for Sasuke to hit him with a fireball. Naruto came up with the how and when and, thanks to his years of pranking, recognized Kakashi's rope trap.

"Before we try to get the second bell, I think we should decide who gets the bell we currently have." Naruto placed the bell between them.

"Anyone have a nomination?"

The three genin all stared at the key to passing this test. None of them made a claim for the bell, for fear of creating a conflict when they needed to work together. After a few minutes of silence however Sakura spoke up.

"I think Sasuke should get this bell."

"Hmph, you would say that Sakura." Naruto muttered, crossing his arms in irritation.

The others braced themselves for Naruto complaining about doing all of the work but not getting the reward.

"However in this instance I agree with you."

Both Sakura and Sasuke were surprised by Naruto's statement, which brought a smile to his own face. He loved surprising people.

"Sasuke was at the top of the class at the academy. He worked the hardest and despite the numerous distractions, mostly coming from the girls in the class," he said that last part with a playful sneer at Sakura, "he never lost focus. I'm not selfish enough to keep him held back out of spite."

With the initial decision made Naruto plucked the bell off the ground and tossed it to Sasuke.

"Now what about the other bell?" Sasuke asked, catching the bell in his palm.

"I think I have an idea." Naruto replied as the others closed in.

* * *

Kakashi stood alone in the forest, reading his book as he patiently waited for his three potentials to make their next move. So far they'd done an excellent job of surprising him with their teamwork, but now that they had one of the bells came the true test, and it wasn't getting the second one away from him.

He wanted to see if they could put aside their own wants for the good of the team, so he allowed them to get one of the bells to see if they would be divided over who would get to pass. As he turned the page, he heard a faint rustle in the trees around him. He was less than surprised when a second later dozens of shurikens erupted from the trees. Leaping to the side, he noted the shurikens were from almost a dozen different trees.

'_Naruto's using his clones again.' _

While Kakashi was still in the air, three kunai knives flew out of the bushes heading straight towards him. '_Smart. Attacking me while I'm locked in trajectory.'_

He contorted his body so the knives flew past him. When he landed, he flashed through the hand seals for a mud wall to block a series of fire balls launched from behind.

"You three are going to have to try harder than that."

A shadow appeared overhead. Kakashi squinted his eye to see Naruto coming down on him, ready to introduce his heel to Kakashi's face. In a blur of motion the silver-haired Jounin's hand shot up, grabbing him by the ankle. Using the young blond's downward momentum, Kakashi spun Naruto around before throwing him into the oncoming Sasuke. The two slid across the ground for 10 feet before they came to a stop.

"Almost had him." Naruto sighed, rising to his feet.

Kakashi didn't want to admit exactly how close they were to overwhelming him.

'_Guess I'll have to start taking them a little seriously.' _

Swallowing his pride, Kakashi earmarked the page he was on and put Make Out Paradise into his pouch.

"Okay then children, you have my attention now."

* * *

It quickly became apparent to Sasuke that he and Naruto were completely outmatched against their teacher. The silver-haired jonin moved swiftly, blocking and dodging the two genins' attacks. He, however, never threw a punch of his own. Instead, he redirected their own attacks at each other.

As Kakashi guided Sasuke's fist to Naruto's stomach, realization struck him. For all the times they trained together, they never trained to fight with each other. They had always trained by fighting against one another. A quick look at Naruto told the young Uchiha that Naruto concluded the same. The blond placed his hands over his eyes. To anyone else it would look like the genin was rubbing his eyes trying to clear them, but Sasuke saw a different meaning.

'_Time to use your Sharingan.' _

Sasuke nodded, his dark eyes turning red. When he turned his enhanced gaze towards Kakashi, Sasuke could see the surprise register in his eye.

"Now! Naruto!" Sasuke yelled as he and the blond charged at Kakashi.

Naruto pulled ahead of Sasuke to throw five shurikens.

Kakashi recovered from his surprise, dodging to the side before he moved to intercept Naruto. Sasuke tracked the movement with his Sharingan, yelling at Naruto to duck. The blond obeyed and five balls of flame rushed over him followed by Sasuke using him as a launch pad. Kakashi stopped his attack short, jumping back to avoid the fireballs. They collided with the ground, kicking up enough dust to hide Naruto from Kakashi.

"Not bad." he remarked, looking up to catch Sasuke's descending foot.

Sasuke twisted his body around, reaching for the remaining bell. Kakashi shoved Sasuke away just as four Narutos emerged from the dust cloud. Kakashi swore, catching the punch of one of the clones and ducking under the kick of another. All four Narutos blindly leapt onto Kakashi just as Sasuke reappeared behind him, flashing through the hand seals for another jutsu. A wave of heat washed over them before a blistering inferno consumed them.

"Think we got him?" Sasuke asked as Naruto came out of the bushes.

"Don't see how we could've missed."

"Oh you don't, do you?" Kakashi's voice asked from beneath them.

Before either of the children could act, a steel grip wrapped around their ankles and pulled them down. Within seconds, Kakashi stood before Naruto and Sasuke, who were buried up to their necks.

"Not too bad, children. You almost had me there. Now where's the girl?"

"Right behind you, sensei." Sakura announced whilst pressing a kunai to Kakashi's back.

As she did so she carefully reached for the second bell.

"So you used the boys as a distraction so you could get behind me unseen." Kakashi analyzed, "Clever girl."

"The most important weapon in a ninja's arsenal is patience." Sakura quoted from their earliest lessons as she tugged the bell free, just as the timer sounded.

* * *

Behind his mask, Kakashi smiled at his three students as Sakura and Sasuke tried to dig Naruto out of his hole.

'_They work well together. Very well. But there's one last test for them.' _

"All right! We did it! We won!" Naruto jumped with joy almost as soon as he was unearthed. Sakura couldn't help but laugh with him while Sasuke did his best to hide a smile and look dignified.

"Yes you guys got the bells, well done." Kakashi agreed, "So who's getting tied to that stump being sent back to the academy?"

The tonal shift was immediate.

"I'll let you guys decide that on the way back."

And just like he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

From a distance, Kakashi watched them debate who would get the second bell, evidently Sasuke was already slated for the first one. Leaving Naruto and Sakura to decide which of them would fail. He watched and waited for the debate to spiral into an argument, but it never happened. Naruto just kept waving off the bell while Sakura kept insisting Naruto take it. That's when Naruto made a shadow clone and Kakashi heard him say.

"When the odds are stacked against you, cheat."

* * *

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke found Kakashi waiting for them by the memorial stone and the three stumps. The silver-haired jonin was still nose deep into his book when he spoke.

"So which of you has the bells?"

He peeked over the edge of his novel to see Sasuke and Sakura each holding up their bell. He glanced at Naruto.

"I guess that means you failed then, Naruto."

The blonde just smiled, "No I don't."

Kakashi raised a curious eyebrow. Naruto produced a tinkling little bell from his pocket.

"We all pass."

Kakashi's eye widened at the sight of the little bell, quickly snatching all three of them out of the hands of his students. With a practiced eye, he examined the three bells. They were all indistinguishable from one another. From behind his mask, he smiled.

"You're right Naruto, you all pass. You all worked together to get the two real bells, and instead of condemning one of your number to failure, you found a way to ensure that you all succeeded."

"We either pass as a team," Sasuke started.

"Or we fail as one." Sakura finished.

Still smiling, Kakashi handed his three students the bells back, "Well done, Team 7."

* * *

Later that night, Kakashi met with Ayame at a sake bar, not too far from Ichiraku's

"So I hear you finally passed a team," Ayame practically sang, pleasantly buzzed.

Kakashi just nodded in response, sipping his drink.

"So how'd they do it?"

"The same way everyone passes: they worked together towards a common goal."

"From what I hear, they managed to dupe you out of tying one of them up."

Kakashi sipped his sake again before telling Ayame Naruto's plan. "Naruto had his shadow clone transform into a perfect copy of the bells. Not a bad idea."

"Not a bad idea? That's bloody brilliant!" Ayame exclaimed, "Wish I had thought of that."

The two drank in silence for a few more minutes before Kakashi looked at the clock and noticed the time. With a deep sigh he reached for his wallet, pulling out a hundred ryo and sliding it over to Ayame.

"You always win our little bets, Ayame."

Ayame smiled as she accepted her winnings. "Only a fool bets against an Uzumaki, Kakashi."

* * *

_Having passed and officially becoming Genin, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura find themselves want a more challenging mission than what they are being given. Fortunately a bridge builder from the Land of Waves has just what they're looking for. Next time: The Bridge Builder_


	10. The Bridge Builder

The forest was silent as a lone creature stalked through the bushes. Pausing to sniff the air, the creature's ears perked up as it checked its surroundings. It was alone, or so it thought. Hidden among the trees, three pairs of eyes bore down on the creature.

"Team 7 reporting in, we have eyes on the target." Sasuke whispered into his radio.

"Acknowledged Team 7." Kakashi's voice said through their earpieces. "Are you close enough to engage?"

"Negative." Sasuke replied.

"Sorry." Chimed in Sakura.

"I'm close enough." Naruto whispered from his hiding spot, directly above his prey. "Just give the word."

"Naruto, wait for the others to get into position." Kakashi ordered, a few moments of silence passed before Naruto acknowledged his order. Carefully Sasuke worked his way from branch to branch, moving slowly to cause as little noise as possible among the hundreds of leaves. Not too far behind him Sakura did the same. A loud SNAP echoed through the quiet forest as a branch Sakura grabbed onto broke from its trunk.

The creature on the ground turned to the sound and looked up into the trees. Its mouth pulled back into a snarl, revealing several gleaming white fangs. The creature loosed a hiss before it started to turn and run.

"Oh no you don't!" Naruto shouted jumping from his perch, and diving right towards the beast. His arms wrapped around the furry body and with a cry of victory the blond hoisted the rather large house cat into the air. The cat was unamused as it turned in Naruto's hand and proceeded to rake its claws across Naruto's face.

While Sakura tried to help Naruto get the beast under control Sasuke radioed Kakashi. "We got it Kakashi-Sensei."

"Can you confirm a red bow tied around the right ear?" Kakashi's voice inquired.

Sasuke turned to examine the cat just as it finished scratching Naruto's face to high hell and turned its aggression on Sakura. Sure enough there was a red bow attached to the cat's right ear. He had to quickly turn around to hide the smile that sprouted across his face at the sight of his teammates having so much trouble with a housecat. "Yeah it has the red bow. It's the right one."

"I hate this damn cat!" Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison as they fought to pin the feline to the ground.

* * *

A half hour trip to the Hokage's Mansion and dozens of scratches later found team seven handing the cat over to his owner Madam Shijimi, who proceeded to squeeze the cat rather tightly to her face. As the cat struggled in vain to free itself from the woman's grasp, Naruto pointed and snickered at the creature while Sakura began to feel some slight sympathy for the thing.

"I think I see why it ran away." She muttered as the woman left the room. Naruto was still snickering to himself as the Hokage presented them with their next assignments, which consisted of babysitting, gardening potatoes, grocery shopping, or…

"No way forget it." Naruto suddenly announced cutting the old man off. "We've been genin for months now and so far all of our missions have sucked. Why don't we ever get any interesting missions?" Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura all sighed at Naruto's outburst. They were all expecting an outburst like this eventually, and with Kiba Inuzuka loudly announcing how his team was going on a "very important C-rank mission" recently, they all figured it would be sooner rather than later. The Third Hokage pinched the bridge of his nose as Iruka tried to explain to Naruto that Team 10 had shown exceptional teamwork in their previous missions and their own sensei, Kurenai Yuhi, told them that they were ready for the C mission.

"That's total bullshi…" Naruto's curse was cut short by hard fist to the top of his head, courtesy of Sakura.

At this Sasuke spoke up. "Iruka Sensei, as much as I hate encouraging him like this, our own team has shown exceptional teamwork since day one. Kakashi Sensei told us so himself."

The Third Hokage and Iruka both looked expectantly at Kakashi, "Well Kakashi, do you believe that your team is ready for their first C-ranked mission."

Kakashi pretended to think it over, but in reality, he was going to suggest a C-rank for his team even if Naruto hadn't thrown his fit. "I think they're ready for some slightly tougher missions." He finally said, allowing Naruto to release the breath he wasn't even aware he was holding.

"Very well." The Hokage said while rolling up his scroll of D-ranked missions. "Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, please leave the room, give us about a half hour to select a suitable mission for you."

* * *

The following half hour was one of the longest of Naruto's life as he excitedly paced up and down the hallway, anticipating his new mission. "What kind of mission do you think they'll give us?" he asked his teammates sitting on the bench outside the office. "Maybe it'll be an assassination mission." Unlikely, hell even impossible, he knew but hey a kid could dream.

"Quit being stupid Naruto." Sakura admonished, "There is literally no chance they would give a group of new genin a mission like that."

"More likely we'll be sent on some sort of escort mission." Sasuke reasoned.

"Sasuke's right." Sakura instantly agreed, eliciting a roll of Naruto's eyes. "It'll probably be something relatively simple so we won't crack under the pressure." But Naruto had stopped listening, instead opting to imagine who they would be escorting and where.

'_Maybe it'll be a beautiful princess whose kingdom is in the middle of a civil war and we'll have to help her retake her throne.' _Was one such fantasy, '_Or maybe we'll be guiding a wise old sage on some spiritual journey and he'll impart some ancient wisdom and power on to us for assisting him.' _Several more such fantasies had arisen when Kakashi called them back inside the office. Once back inside Naruto noticed someone new was in the room. After a moment of initial confusion Naruto realized that the stranger must have walked past them while he was busy fantasizing.

"Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke," Iruka started addressing the three genin, "This is Tazuna, master bridge builder of the Land of Waves." The man turned to look at the three genin. Naruto felt a number of his fantasies die as he beheld a bottle of sake clutched in his gnarled old hand. He wore plain clothes and a hat, and stared at them through round glasses. "You'll be escorting him back to his home country."

Naruto felt the rest of his fantasies perish when the old man opened his mouth, "You're kidding me. These three brats are supposed to be my protection? They're all still wet behind the ears by the look of it. Plus the small fry looks like a dumbass."

"Hey, Sakura's the smartest genin of our year." Naruto challenged, defending his teammate. A thump on the back of his head was his thanks. When Naruto turned to confront Sakura about the unjustified hit, he noticed for the first time in his life, that he had to look ever so slightly up to meet her eyes. A quick glance over to Sasuke revealed the same scenario, Naruto had to look up to meet his eyes. "I'll kill him!" Naruto declared once the epiphany sank in.

"No, no we don't kill the man we're supposed to protect." Kakashi calmly corrected as he held on to the collar of Naruto's orange jacket. For their part Sasuke and Sakura did their best not to laugh. "In any event, it's nice to meet you Mr. Tazuna. I'm Kakashi Hatake, and despite being a little rough around the edges these are the best genin of their year. I can assure you that you'll be perfectly safe under our guard." Tazuna scoffed as Kakashi turned Naruto around and ordered him to calm down before Kakashi turned back to the older man. "When would you like to leave Mr. Tazuna?"

"First thing in the morning." Tazuna answered as he took a large gulp of sake.

"Very well, Team 7 meet at the village gates at six o'clock tomorrow morning. Pack for a long trip."

* * *

Naruto arrived at his apartment just as the sun was beginning to set. He paused in front of the door and knocked a rhythm on the wooden door. A few seconds passed as various locks clicked out of place. When the door finally opened Naruto found himself staring at himself.

"What the hell happened to you?" the other Naruto asked.

"I hate cats." Was the original's reply. "So did we learn anything new from Arashi?" The clone nodded as he held up a one handed Tiger seal. The clone disappeared in a puff of smoke and Naruto felt the knowledge appear in his mind. Whatever his clone learned during its "life" Naruto learned once the clone was destroyed or released. It was neat trick and Naruto had been using it to learn all he could from Arashi's scrolls. Unfortunately due to the chakra splitting nature of the shadow clone jutsu, Naruto found himself with less energy than normal on days where he did this. Still the payoff was worth it for him and it was good practice in making his clones last longer.

Today the clone had managed to open up one of Arashi's jutsu scrolls. Several techniques were listed inside. Water Release: Raging Maelstrom, Wind Release: Jetstream and others. However there was one that stood out for Naruto, Wind Release: Wind Claws. Naruto smiled as memories of Arashi trying to perfect this jutsu flashed through his head. The concern when he messed up and cut his fingers to ribbons and the excitement once he successfully performed the jutsu. Naruto remembered asking Arashi to teach him the jutsu right there only for Arashi to tell him, once again, "When you're older." Well he was older now and he would learn this jutsu first.

"Thank you brother." Naruto said to Arashi's shrine as he grabbed the scroll with the jutsu inside it. "I won't let you down."

* * *

_In what remained of the Uchiha Compound, in the very dojo where he had fought Naruto when they first met Sasuke and Kakashi faced one another. "When you fought with your team you matched your movements to theirs and coordinate your efforts." Kakashi stated as he stood across from his pupil, "However when you fight alone, you're too aggressive and direct. We're going to fix that. Get ready."_

_Sasuke slid into a ready stance and slowly inched towards Kakashi. The jonin made no move to indicate whether or not he was ready. With a low growl Sasuke threw himself at his teacher, opening up with a kick at Kakashi's right leg. Kakashi stepped back to avoid the kick and punched towards Sasuke's forehead with his left hand. Sasuke's hands shot up and grabbed the jonin by the wrist. Stepping to the side Sasuke forced Kakashi's arm down, bringing the jonin to a knee. Before Sasuke could capitalize on his temporary advantage, Kakashi pulled his arm in and Sasuke was pulled off balance. Before the genin could right himself Kakashi delivered a kick to Sasuke's gut. The genin flew back and landed with a loud thump. _

_Sasuke quickly got back up and was on top of Kakashi again. This time attacking with an axe kick. A quick step to the side saw Kakashi to safety and a quick sweep with his foot had Sasuke on the ground again. Sasuke rolled to his feet and tried to jab for Kakashi's hip. The jonin counterpunched and struck the Uchiha square on the bridge of his nose. _

"_You're too aggressive Sasuke." Kakashi scolded, "What are you going to do if you rush headlong into a fight against someone who's faster than you?"_

_Sasuke rushed forward, his eyes flashing crimson. "Then I use these." He growled while punching for Kakashi's face. With his sharingan active he saw exactly what Kakashi would do. He would grab Sasuke's punch and twist his arm behind his back, then he would force the boy to the ground and pin him there. Even though Sasuke saw all of this clearly he was still powerless to stop Kakashi from doing just that._

"_Just because your eyes can follow and even predict my movements doesn't mean your body is fast enough to keep up with them." Kakashi instructed as his forced Sasuke's face onto the mat. _

The memory of his first lesson with Kakashi was still fresh in Sasuke's mind as he found himself once again pressed to the mat. "You're doing better." Kakashi complimented.

"Then why can't I beat you?" Sasuke asked as Kakashi helped him up.

"Because I'm your teacher." Was Kakashi's infuriatingly simple answer. When he saw Sasuke's irritated reaction he added, "But give yourself some credit for lasting as long as you did. I am quite good you know." Sasuke was about to say more when the alarm clock rang signaling the end of the training session. "Well I'll be you seeing bright and early tomorrow morning." Kakashi said as he turned to leave the dojo.

"Sensei." Sasuke started. Kakashi paused and looked at his student. "Why are you doing this for me? The private lessons I mean."

"Well before you let it go to your head, I alternate between the three of you. I help Naruto with ninjutsu, Sakura with genjutsu, and you with taijutsu. In time I'll switch around what I teach you so I can get a real grasp of your talents and adjust accordingly."

"Do you chastise them too then?" Sasuke pressed, hoping for a yes.

"Nope, that is specially for you."

"Why's that?"

"Because you remind me of myself at your age. You don't want to be that. Now good night Sasuke."

Sasuke watched Kakashi leave and stood alone for a few moments before whispering, "Thank you sensei."

* * *

While off on their first C-Ranked mission, Naruto and his team find they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Next Time: The Demon of the Mist.

* * *

**Shorter chapter is shorter, sorry about that. Hope you enjoyed what there was and please leave a review. Thank you for Reading. **


	11. The Demon of the Mist

Tazuna had to struggle to keep himself from bolting away from the conflict going on before him. The five of them had made good distance in the short hours since they left Konoha. Along the way he and the blonde brat, Naruto, had traded numerous jibes and insults with one another. A loud mouthed brat the child may be, but he had a nearly limitless excitement about their trip. Excitement was something Tazuna hadn't seen in a very long time. Behind them the pink haired girl was trying to get the dark haired boy's attention, with limited success. While he was talking to her and interacting with her, Tazuna could tell it wasn't in the way Sakura was hoping for. And at the back of their group was the infamous silver haired jonin Kakashi 'The Copy Ninja' Hatake, reading a book as he followed. Tazuna was just starting to feel optimistic about this trip when the rattling of chains reached his ears. He and the children turned around just in time to see two men, wearing tattered black cloaks and strange gear covering their faces, tear Kakashi apart with a bladed chain that connected to large, clawed, gauntlets worn by each of them.

What happened afterwards occurred so damn fast that Tazuna would never really be sure if he actually saw everything that occurred. He saw the Uchiha boy pin their assailant's chain to a tree with a kunai and shuriken. That only slowed their attackers for a brief moment before they disconnected the chain from their gauntlets and attacked with renewed ferocity. Tazuna watched the two split up, one going after the loud mouth blonde and the other coming straight for him and Sakura, who had stuck by him during the ordeal. Tazuna flinched just as a blur of silver dashed past and caught the ninja by his throat. When the old bridge builder opened his eyes he was utterly stunned to see Kakashi standing there, completely unharmed, with the two ninja's necks held firmly under his arms.

"We need to talk." The jonin stated, his one eye glaring at Tazuna. After giving a few quick orders to his team he pulled Tazuna off to the side. "Those two were after you Tazuna. Anything you'd like to get off of your chest?"

* * *

'_I choked.' _Naruto fumed as he held his bleeding hand completely still. '_This was it, my first real battle. My first chance to show what I've learned. And I couldn't fucking do anything.' _When the enemy ninja, who seemed to be from the Hidden Mist Village going by his headband, charged at him, Naruto found himself unable to move to defend himself. When the man slashed at him with his clawed gauntlet, Naruto frantically tried to block the attack and received a superficial wound on the back of his hand. Or so it seemed.

It was then that Kakashi decided to reveal that he was in fact still alive and had used a substitution jutsu to fool everyone. Kakashi quickly incapacitated the two Kiri Ninja and before long had them tied to a tree for interrogation.

"Sakura you passed basic first aid right?" the Jonin had asked as he and old man Tazuna went off to the side a little.

"Yes sensei."

"Then please see to Naruto's hand." And with that Kakashi started talking to Tazuna, with Sasuke watching the two enemy ninja intently. Carefully Sakura took Naruto's hand in hers and started cleaning the blood from his injury.

"Does that hurt?" She asked

Naruto was conflicted, on one hand he was extremely disappointed with himself for allowing this to happen in the first place. On the other it did get Sakura to actually touch him without it being in the form of a semi friendly, if hard, bonk on his head. While granted she wasn't as violent as she used to be towards him for the last few months she still hit him pretty hard on occasion. As it was he decided to play it cool.

"Not really." He said, "In fact I can't really feel it at all." Sakura seemed to perk up at this. For a second Naruto thought she was going say how cool it was that Naruto didn't even feel the pain and he blushed a little. Instead she pressed her thumb over the small wound.

"How about that do you feel this?" she asked, a frantic worry in her voice.

"Uh, n-no?" Naruto stammered. He couldn't feel it. In fact he couldn't even feel his whole hand.

"Shit." She cursed as she pulled a bandage from her first aid kit and tied it tightly around his forearm. "Sensei! I think Naruto's been poisoned!" Kakashi was over in a flash, relieving Sakura of her post and sending her to watch over their prisoners with Sasuke. Once she was gone Kakashi carefully examined the wound.

"Where does your feeling stop?" Kakashi asked, his voice calm and relaxed as ever.

"A-at about my wr-wrist." Naruto responded.

"Ok, good that means that Sakura's tourniquet is working." Kakashi said while examining Sakura's work before making some slight adjustments on its placement. "This'll slow the poisons progress, but we still need to get the poisoned blood out of your system.

"Can we do that here?" Naruto asked.

"Not easily, we'd have to make the wound bigger and bleed it out of you. It'd be better, and less painful, if we carried you back to the village for proper medical treatment." Kakashi continued speaking but Naruto had stopped listening after he said "carried you back." After all of the boasting Naruto did about being the greatest Hokage ever, he didn't think his pride could suffer a blow like having to be carried back to the village… a mere three hours after leaving on his first C-mission.

"As appealing as a ride to the village sounds Sensei," Naruto began as he pulled out his kunai, "I think I'll pass." And with that Naruto stabbed the kunai into the back of his hand. Blood splashed all over the ground as Naruto forced the once superficial wound into a sizable gash, all without a complaint. "Naruto Uzumaki is ready for duty."

* * *

"What do you mean they failed to kill him?" A short, hairy man stamped his cane onto the floor in irritation as pointed an accusing finger at a lone man lounging on a couch, obscured by the shadows. "You assured me that those two would be able to handle it with no problems."

The man on the couch shrugged, "If the demon brothers failed then it's because the old man had better body guards than you insisted he could afford."

"Are you implying that it's my fault?"

"Not at all." The man lounging on the couch reached over the back of the couch to grab something the shorter man couldn't see. Then faster than the stocky man could follow the man on the couch brought a gigantic slab of sharpened metal, which should've too large for a man to lift, let alone with one arm, to bear in front of his face. "Those fools failed to deliver results. So Gato, when I deliver Tazuna's head to you on this sword, theirs will be right next to it." Gato flinched the large sword was pulled back to rest on the shoulder of its owner, The Demon of Kiri, Zabuza Momochi.

* * *

Sakura's stomach had flipped over and over so many times in the last few days that she was afraid that it would never sit right again. A B-Ranked mission. How could their simple C-Rank escort mission have changed so much in such a short amount of time? She thought back to only 2 days ago, after Naruto's little stunt, Tazuna had explained the situation to the team in full. His home land, The Land of Waves was never exactly the wealthiest of places but they had always made do with what they had. That was why the bridge they were building was so important. It would open up a new line of trade that help bring in more wealth for the country. But as it turned out a very influential man named Gato had a vested interest in limiting the amount of trade routes into the country. Tazuna however refused to be intimidated by the man and so decided to continue working to complete the bridge. He however wasn't stupid and figured that Gato would likely resort to unsavory measures to ensure he didn't succeed. So he traveled to Konoha to enlist the aid of their ninja seeing as The Land of Waves lacked its own ninja village.

As the little boat they were all riding in neared the shoreline, Sakura asked herself for what felt like the hundredth time why they weren't heading back to the village so a more experienced team of Chunin or even Jonin could handle this mission. However both Naruto and Sasuke assured Kakashi that they could handle it. Sakura had wanted to object but she just couldn't bring herself to let her cowardice drag Sasuke back. Ultimately Kakashi decided to continue the mission. "I'll just have to do more of the heavy lifting than I thought." Kakashi had said under his breath. The boat driver eyed the shoreline suspiciously as he brought his craft in to dock.

"This is as far as I can take you." He told his five passengers. "You'll have to walk the rest of the way."

Kakashi thanked the driver as he paid him while Sakura and her teammates stepped off the boat. "Which way?" Sakura asked, once they were all off and the boat was back in the water. Tazuna gestured to a road a few meters away and told them to follow it east.

"It should take us right home."

And just like when they set off for this mission the five of them walked into the unknown, however this time instead of a sense of wonder and adventure, the group was feeling a sense of dread and apprehension. The oppressive fog certainly wasn't helping the mood. Sakura still stuck close to Sasuke, though this time it was more for protection than flirting. Tazuna walked between Kakashi and Sasuke, for he figured they'd be the most able to keep him alive and well. Outwardly Kakashi and Sasuke were calm and indifferent as ever, but their eyes were taking in everything. And then there was Naruto, who was determined to make up for his earlier mishap, by constantly moving back and forth from the front of the group to the back to make sure that no one would be able to ambush them like earlier.

"Naruto would you please cut it out?" Sakura asked as the group stopped for a rest after a few hours. Naruto glanced at his teammate before replying.

"I'm just trying to make sure nobody gets the drop on us."

"Yeah well it's making me nervous."

"You should take it a little more slowly Naruto." Kakashi chimed in. "At this rate you'll be too tired to fight back if we are attacked."

Sakura was about to thank her sensei for agreeing with her when Naruto spun around and threw some shuriken into some bushes. "What are you doing?" Sakura almost shrieked as Naruto pulled a kunai from his leg harness.

"I heard something." Naruto whispered as he approached the bush. Sakura almost crouched low in case an enemy leapt out to attack them, but upon noticing that Sasuke and Kakashi didn't seem worried remained standing. When Naruto pulled back the bush Sakura was shocked to see a grey rabbit, pressing itself against a tree, with the kunai Naruto threw sticking out of the same tree just between the rabbit's ears.

"Naruto you idiot!" Sakura said, "You almost killed this adorable little bunny!" Even as she scolded him, Sakura couldn't help but find Naruto's pleading for the rabbit's forgiveness cute.

"You think it's someone's pet?" Naruto asked.

"What makes you say that?" Tazuna asked, "It's probably just a wild rabbit. There are tons of them around here."

"No, Naruto's right." Sasuke said, "Its fur's the wrong color for the season."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Rabbits grow a thick white fur coat during the winter." Sakura explained.

"So what?"

"It's almost winter right now." Sakura stated. "Its fur should be white right about now."

"But this rabbit's fur is still grey." Sasuke continued, "Which means this rabbit was probably kept indoors where it wouldn't have to grow the thicker fur to keep warm."

"So this little guy must've gotten out of his home." Naruto finished holding the rabbit in his arms, lightly petting it.

"That or someone let it out." Kakashi speculated. Before anyone could ask him what he meant Kakashi was in motion, "Everyone get down!" he shouted as he dove forward, driving Sakura and Tazuna to the ground. As she fell to the ground Sakura saw a giant slab of metal spin by overhead. For brief moment Sakura imagined what would've happened if Kakashi hadn't moved her. It wasn't pretty. When Sakura was able to get back to her feet she looked at where the spinning piece of metal went. It was now lodged deep into a tree trunk, with a man standing on an elongated hilt sticking out of it.

'_That thing's a sword?' _Sakura thought while wondering what kind of monster could've thrown it like that.

"You're Zabuza Momochi." She heard Kakashi say, "The Demon of Kiri."

* * *

Zabuza stared down at the four Konoha shinobi and his primary target from atop his perch. At first he was a little disappointed with his prey. How could the Demon Brothers lose to only three genin and a single jonin? But that was when he recognized the jonin in question.

"Nice to finally meet you Kakashi Hatake." Zabuza replied. The three brats looked at their sensei confused.

"Do you know this guy sensei?" the pink haired girl asked. Zabuza and Kakashi glared at one another.

"Only by reputation." The Konoha jonin replied while stepping forward to place himself between Zabuza and his charges. "Zabuza Momochi, of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure. Stay back and keep Tazuna safe." Kakashi stepped forward and reached up to adjust his headband. "Leave this to me." Kakashi lifted his headband from his left eye, revealing a sharingan eye.

"The Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan Eye." Zabuza said once he saw the infamous red eye. "I've always wanted to fight the man who's copied more than a thousand jutsu." Zabuza could see the surprise and confusion of Kakashi's three brats. Smiling under his mask Zabuza knelt down and grabbed hold of his sword's hilt. With barely any effort he pulled the giant blade free from the trunk it was buried in as he dropped to the forest floor. The tree, now missing the thing keeping it balanced toppled over behind him as he landed. "I wonder if your sharingan can see in this mist." Zabuza said as he made two one handed tiger seals and held one in front of his chest and the other high above his head. The Hidden Mist jutsu. The fog thickened and in an instant Zabuza disappeared from sight.

The three children all took a defensive formation around the old man while Kakashi readied himself to move at a moment's notice. They all tried in vain to catch a glimpse of the Kiri ninja. Kakashi no doubt felt that he would be Zabuza's first target.

"I have eight targets." Zabuza said, his voice seeming to come from all angles. "Liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, neck vein, brain, kidneys, or the heart." The five of them all glanced around. "Which one should I cut out first?" At those words the dark haired child had started to tremble uncontrollably. Undoubtedly the boy was terrified at the thought that Zabuza could snuff out his life at a whim. Zabuza decided right then, he'd kill the boy last. Let him watch the fun.

"Don't worry." Kakashi said, soothingly. "I won't let you guys be hurt."

"Oh we'll see about that." Zabuza's voice said, from the middle of the group. Kakashi was in motion at once. Kunai in hand, he dove into Zabuza and plunged the knife into his gut.

* * *

A pair of eyes watched carefully as the battle between Kakashi Hatake and Zabuza Momochi unfolded before him. He wasn't surprised when Zabuza had exploded into drops of water. The water clone jutsu was always a favorite of the swordsman. Hidden high in the trees neither combatant had noticed him yet and the stranger was wondering if he should get involved. He ultimately decided to wait and see who'd win. After all, it wasn't everyday one got to watch two powerhouses like these go at it.

* * *

Kakashi wasn't surprised when the Zabuza he stabbed turned out to be a water clone. In fact he kind of expected it. Didn't make it any less annoying however. Kakashi glared at the puddle before him as Naruto shouted out a warning. As Kakashi turned, the giant sword wielded by Zabuza bit into his flesh and very quickly he found he was half the man he used to be. At least before Kakashi himself turned into water. Kakashi didn't give Zabuza much time to be annoyed as he appeared behind him and drove his kunai into the Kiri ninja's neck. Kakashi sighed as he noticed water flow from the wound instead of blood.

"We're going to be at this all day." Kakashi lamented as he yanked the knife out. The water clone fell apart as soon as the steel left it.

"Then how about we speed it up a bit?" Zabuza's asked from behind. Kakashi ducked just as Zabuza's sword passed over his head. He was unable to dodge the kick that followed however. Kakashi was lifted off the ground by the force of the kick and landed in a nearby lake. As he surfaced Kakashi noticed the water was weighing him down more than it should've. Suddenly Zabuza was right behind him flashing through hand seals. "Fool." He stated as the water around Kakashi formed into a sphere around him, trapping him inside. Kakashi quickly held his breath before the water flooded into his lungs, but the inside of the sphere was hollow. Confused Kakashi looked at Zabuza, who held his hand on the sphere.

"I don't want you to drown before I can kill all of your students in front of you." he stated, glaring at the three children protecting Tazuna. "I wonder, which of them will scream the loudest?" As he spoke a new water clone formed itself next to him.

* * *

_Naruto and friends struggle to release Kakashi from Zabuza's jutsu. Next time The Sharingan Eye_

* * *

_Author's Note: Sorry for the prolonged abscence, I know that happens a lot with me but now I'm back in school and find myself with a very long wait between two of my classes. which means I actually have some time to write now. So hopefully I can get back into a chapter every week or two. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review for they let me know if I'm entertaining people. Have a wonderful time and God bless._


	12. The Sharingan Eye

"Guys! Take Tazuna and get out of here right now! His clone can't travel far from him or it turns back into water." Kakashi shouted from Zabuza's water prison.

"But what about you sensei?" Sakura asked, nervously holding her kunai in front of her.

"Don't worry about me! I told you he's too much for you! Now leave! That's an order!"

Sasuke was about to follow that order, glancing at his teammates. '_Damn it. Even if we do run, Zabuza will just kill Kakashi and chase us down. Our fates were sealed the instant Kakashi was captured. We'll have to fight Zabuza and free Kakashi. It's the only way we even have a shot at surviving.'_ Again Sasuke looked at his companions. Naruto looked ready to charge in and attack, no surprise there. He always was too headstrong for his own good. Tazuna looked about ready to turn and run as fast as he could. When he saw Sakura she looked moments away from bursting to tears.

"Don't worry Sakura." Sasuke forced himself to say. "I promise we'll get through this together." Sasuke tried to sound confident but to his ears the promise sounded hollow. Still it seemed to work, Sakura looked a little calmer. "Just stay close to Tazuna and keep him safe." Sasuke turned to Naruto, who was making the hand seal for his shadow clones. "Naruto and I will handle this."

"Yeah, this eyebrow less freak won't know what hit him." Naruto boasted as ten more Naruto appeared around him. "You stay back and keep the old fart safe."

"Oh so the little brats think they're real ninja." Zabuza taunted. "Tell me children, how old were you when you took your first life?" Both Sasuke and the Narutos stiffened at the question. "Oh, still virgins I see. Then let me tell you a story about my home village, Kirigakure. It had another name once, the Village of the Bloody Mist. It got the name because of the graduation ceremony every student went through to become genin. When they started at the academy two children would be paired off. They would live, fight, and train together. They were meant to be as close as siblings. In order to graduate from the academy, one of the students had to kill the other one."

At that Sasuke and Naruto glanced at one another. '_If we had been born in that village…' _Sasuke couldn't finish the thought instead he thought of their fight so long ago, when Itachi had betrayed him. Sasuke could tell Naruto was thinking the same thing.

"So what are you saying?" Naruto asked, "That you killed your best friend to become a genin?"

Zabuza laughed, "I'm not finished with my tale. The practice has since been ended, because of a certain incident. One year a child who wasn't even old enough to enter the academy butchered the entire graduating class of over a hundred students. I've never had so much fun. So let me ask you, do you still think you have a chance against me?"

* * *

"You're a monster." Sakura whispered after Zabuza finished his story. He slaughtered one hundred children, while he was a child himself. There's no way someone like that could be human.

She suddenly found it hard to breathe. She could only watch as Sasuke, Naruto, and all of his clones, seemingly heedless of their inevitable demise, charged forward. She could barely hear Kakashi Sensei's shout for them to retreat while Zabuza's clone effortlessly repelled the onslaught without moving from its spot. Sasuke had leapt into the air while the Narutos all threw shuriken at the Kiri ninja. With contemptuous ease Zabuza's clone blocked the shuriken with a swing of his giant sword, all the while aiming the swing to cut Sasuke in half. Sakura closed her eyes and cried out to Sasuke before the sound of metal crashing into wood reached her ears. When she opened her eyes, the girl saw a log that looked like it had been hit with a club fall to the floor while Sasuke was behind the clone aiming a kick at his back. Before the foot could connect the water clone turned and grabbed Sasuke by his ankle. With his savage strength, Zabuza tossed Sasuke like a rag doll into the oncoming wave of Narutos. While he collided with two Narutos, causing both clones to disappear, the remaining 9 all tackled Zabuza's clone. The giant didn't even budge as he shoved against his attackers and swung at them with his sword. That was when Sakura saw he was using the blunt side of the blade.

'_He's toying with them. How are we supposed to protect someone against something like that?'_ She wanted it all to stop. She wanted to run home and forget that this nightmare ever happened. But she knew Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't run away and leave Kakashi Sensei to die. And even if she could bring herself to abandon them and run herself, she had no doubt that she wouldn't be able to make it home. As much as she hated it she was stuck here, for better or worse.

* * *

Naruto's chest felt like it had been danced on by an angry horse. The blow from Zabuza's giant blade had disposed of all his clones and sent himself flying, landing in a crumpled heap next to Sasuke.

"He's not trying to kill us." Sasuke said as he helped Naruto to his feet, "Not yet anyway."

"Is that supposed to be comforting?" Naruto coughed, chest burning with pain.

"It means we get another shot at freeing Kakashi." Sasuke informed him. "So long as we don't bore him."

"Great, got any bright ideas?"

"I have the beginning of a plan. You brought a windmill shuriken right?" Naruto shrugged off his backpack, keeping a wary on the Zabuza clone who seemed content with letting his prey try whatever they were thinking of. After a few moments of searching Naruto produced a large fan like blade that when unfolded resembled a windmill propeller. "Great, think you can keep him distracted?"

"Please." Naruto said as he made even more clones, "Distracting people is my specialty." And with Naruto and his clones charged forward each shouting a battle cry of some kind. Two clones started to weave hand seals. Within moments Zabuza's clone was engulfed by a giant inferno.

* * *

"_Hmm. I'm afraid it's not very strong." Kakashi commented upon seeing Naruto's rather small fireball. "Still I guess that's be expected, you are a wind nature after all."_

"_Then why the hell did you bother teaching me this jutsu then?" Naruto complained, upset that his fireball was so much weaker than what he saw Sasuke do. _

"_Just trust me ok. Keep practicing at it and it'll get stronger. Until then however let's trying something else." Kakashi instructed Naruto to create a shadow clone. "Now one of you cast a fireball while the other casts jet stream. Your target is that tree over there. The two Narutos started sequencing their hand seals. They both finished at the same and where one blew out a great gust of air, the other shot another small fireball. When the small ball of flame connected with the stream of wind, Naruto blinked in surprise._

_The jet stream had ignited like oil and had become a firestorm that consumed not just the tree Kakashi had pointed at but several trees behind it as well. The two Narutos stared in open mouthed amazement as Kakashi's own shadow clone doused the fires with a water jutsu._

"_When two opposing chakra natures meet two things happen." Kakashi explained, his eye smiling at Naruto's surprise, "Either one will cancel the other out, like water does with fire, or they will combine and strengthen each other, like wind and fire. Remember Naruto, versatility is your greatest strength."_

* * *

Zabuza was mildly impressed with the blonde brats little trick. If it weren't for the fact that the mist surrounding them weakened the combined jutsu, along with his clone created a water wall around him before he was engulfed, Zabuza would be short one clone. Still it wasn't quite good enough. Zabuza decided right there that if the blonde brat were able to grow up and mature, he'd be a major contender in the ninja world. Shame Zabuza had to kill him now. With a nod, his clone turned its sword around and began to lay waste to the little army of blondes. That was when he noticed the other brat.

The dark haired boy had unfolded a windmill shuriken and hurled it directly at him. '_Smart. Attack the real me while my clone is distracted, and hopefully put an end to me.' _Zabuza thought as he watched the giant shuriken sail towards him. It was too close for him to deflect it with his sword, so he caught it by the ring in the center. To his surprise, the brunette didn't curse or look angry that his attack failed. He smiled. That's when Zabuza noticed the second shuriken flying towards his mid-section. '_He hid the second in the shadow of the first. Clever little bastards.' _Unable to block or catch the second shuriken, Zabuza did the only sensible thing he could do. He hopped over the damn thing without taking his hand off of Kakashi's water prison.

"Good try kids." Zabuza taunted as he landed. "But not good enou…"

"Who said we were done!" a loud, obnoxious voice called from behind. Zabuza turned to see the blonde hurdling towards him, each of the fingers on his right hand had a ragged line of charka running along it. Zabuza had no choice, he removed his hand from the water prison and leaned away from the oncoming brat. Even so, the kid was still able to scratch his side, drawing five small trickles of blood.

"Woo Hoo!" the blonde shouted as he landed in the water in front of them.

"You little shit!" Zabuza spun the windmill shuriken around his finger, fully intending to take the little bastard's head off with it. Only for it to stop spinning mid wind up. Zabuza turned to see a drenched Kakashi, holding on to one of the four blades of the shuriken, murder plain to see in his scarlet eye. "Guess I'll have to take you first if I want to get to the brats. Eh Kakashi?" Zabuza chuckled letting the windmill shuriken fall and sink into the lake.

"Don't make it sound like it's going to be easy Zabuza." Kakashi growled in response, "The same jutsu won't work on me twice."

"Is that so?" The two jonin stared at one another for a few moments. Weighing each other. Then as one they leapt apart, hands flashing through identical hand seals. For almost a minute the two ninja just stood there weaving their seals. When both finished at the same time, twin dragons of water emerged from the lake and attacked. The resulting clash sent waves through the lake, forcing Naruto under the water's surface. While their dragons fought Kakashi and Zabuza closed in on each other, sword in Zabuza's hand, kunai knives in Kakashi's. Sparks flew from the blades as the two engaged each other with lightning fast attacks. Kakashi crossed his two knives together to make an X and caught Zabuza's sword between them. When Zabuza pushed Kakashi away from him he pressed the attack, but no matter how hard or fast Zabuza struck at him, Kakashi was able to duck or weave out of the way, all the while score numerous if superficial wounds with his two knives.

"Why won't you die?" Zabuza shouted as he slammed the sword to his back and started weaving a new jutsu, only to find Kakashi already weaving the exact jutsu he was. This time Kakashi finished first.

"Water Release: Giant Vortex." Kakashi said as an arc of water rose around him, only to shout out like a sideways waterspout. The vortex slammed into Zabuza, knocking him off his feet and propelling him into a tree. As the water died down hot lances of pain buried themselves into Zabuza's shoulders. The two kunai Kakashi had been fighting with were buried to the grip in his flesh.

"How?" Zabuza coughed looking straight into Kakashi's sharingan, "Can you see the future?"

"I can." Kakashi admitted, "Your future is death." And just like that Zabuza's world faded to black as two long needles pierced his neck.

* * *

Surprised by the sudden attack Kakashi turned to the direction of the attacker and found himself looking at young boy wearing the porcelain mask of a Kiri ANBU. "Well you were right. He died." The boy said, his voice slightly muffled by the porcelain mask he wore. Kakashi eyed the boy suspiciously as he approached. "I'm sorry for stealing your victory away from you, but I was sworn to kill this man myself." Kakashi said nothing as the boy approached the corpse and checked for a pulse. He evidently found none as he stood up with relief visible on his body language. "You have my thanks for wearing him down for me sir."

"Just who the hell are you?" Naruto shouted as he crawled out of the lake, soaked to the bone. "We get our asses kicked by this bastard, Kakashi Sensei almost died fighting him and you just show up and kill him like it's nothing." Naruto was visibly trembling, although whether or not that was from his anger or just being completely soaked, Kakashi did not know. "Why didn't you help us out? What makes you so much better than us that you could just…?"

"Naruto that's enough." Kakashi said. "This boy is an ANBU Ninja from Kiri. He was just doing his job in the most efficient way he could."

Kakashi could see that the Kiri ninja's casual dispatch of Zabuza had hurt his pride. Naruto bit his lip, clearly trying to keep himself from crying.

"It was not my intention to cause any of you distress." The boy said looking at Naruto. "It just seemed to me like you and your friend had the situation under control. All things considered you did well." With that the boy turned to Zabuza's corpse and hefted him onto his shoulders. Naruto opened his mouth to protest but was silenced by Kakashi's hand on his shoulder. "His body contains many secrets of my village. I must see to the destruction of his remains." And just like that the boy disappeared with the body.

"Come here you three." Kakashi beckoned his three students to him. When they gathered around him he smiled under his mask. "You guys did great, all three of you."

"But I didn't do anything." Sakura stated.

"That's not true Sakura, you did something very brave today." Kakashi said. "You didn't run away. Things seemed hopeless and instead of fleeing you stood by your teammates." Then Kakashi turned to Naruto and Sasuke and let his voice drop to a low growl. "As for you two." The two boys suddenly had a worried look to their eyes. "Thank you both for not giving up on me."

"We should be able to make it home by nightfall." Tazuna said, a relieved smile on his face.

"Well in that case let's get going." Kakashi said casually, while sliding his headband over his left eye. "I find myself a tad fatigued." As he turned to walk away however Kakashi stumbled before collapsing to the ground.

* * *

_Having finally arrived in The Land of Waves, Naruto and his team are put through a very strange regiment. At the same time Naruto finds himself having to prove to a young boy that there are still heroes in the world. Next time: A Land of Heroes Part One: Recovery_

* * *

**Author's Note: Welp that's it for Zabuza... No seriously he's dead. Permantly. He will definitely not be appearing in the next couple of chapters. I swear. Scouts honor.**

**P.S. I was never a scout.**


	13. A Land of Heroes Part One: Recovery

**AN| A big thanks to my new Beta Reader Rainpath of Thunderclan, who was of great help in editing this chapter.**

* * *

_The infiltration of the Kiri prison camp had seemed to go simply enough. Kakashi had stowed himself under a supply cart, using his chakra to anchor himself to the cart's bottom. He feared his silver hair would ruin any attempt of infiltration, so he had ditched his usual black face mask for a muddy brown balaclava that covered his whole head. He had held his breath when the cart was stopped for inspection. Fortunately the security of the camp seemed to be overconfident in their abilities and they didn't check under the cart._

_When the cart stopped to unload its cargo, Kakashi silently lowered himself to the ground and waited until the guards turned away to carry off some of the supplies. Upon doing a quick inspection to ensure that there was no one around, he crawled out from under the cart and quickly buried himself within a bush. From the safety of the bush, Kakashi inspected the position of the sun lowering itself over the western horizon. He would only have to wait a half hour or so before he could begin the operation in earnest. Upon spying a single guard approaching his bush, he waited for the man to pass before he reached out from the bush and pulled the guard in with him. His hand clamped around the guard's mouth as he drew the trident kunai Minato had given to him as a gift and pressed it to his throat._

"_Make a sound louder than a whisper," Kakashi whispered, "And you'll find yourself missing your throat." Kakashi could see sweat start to bead the man's skin. The guard was more a boy than a man, just a few years older than Kakashi in fact. "Do you understand?" The guard nodded. "Good. Give me your name and rank."_

_Kakashi carefully removed his hand from the guard's mouth. He seemed to believe Kakashi's threat, for when he answered, it was in a whisper. "Kyosuke Akamizu, Chunin."_

"_Kyosuke, where's Rin Nohara?"_

* * *

"I think he's waking up." Sakura's voice was the first thing Kakashi heard as he came back to himself. "Kakashi-sensei are you okay?"

The silver haired jonin groggily opened his eyes, only to immediately shut the left one to avoid having his sharingan drain anymore of his chakra. "Water." He groaned. Sakura nodded and gestured to someone Kakashi couldn't see. A few moments later a woman he didn't know appeared in his field of vision holding a cup. Wearily Kakashi took the cup and reached up to pull his mask down to drink, only to touch his bare face. A look of confusion stretched across Kakashi's face.

"We had to take your mask off while you slept," The woman explained, "To give you some water so you didn't dehydrate."

'_Well there goes my air of mystery.' _Kakashi thought as he drank the water. It felt wonderful to his parched throat. "How long was I out?"

The woman answered. "Your students and my father brought you here two days ago. Sakura and I have been taking care of you since."

'_Two days huh. No wonder I feel so stiff.' _Kakashi tried to prop himself up on his elbows but found he lacked the strength. "My apologies for being such a burden miss…"

"Tsunami." The woman provided, "And don't worry about it. After you and your students saved my father, it was the least I could do."

Speaking of Tazuna and his students, "Where are Sasuke and Naruto?"

"They're with Tazuna, guarding him while he works on the bridge." Sakura stated.

"What time will they return?"

"They should be finishing up for the day." Tsunami said. "Inari." Kakashi turned to see a little boy wearing coveralls and a fisherman's hat step into the room. Tsunami's son, Kakashi guessed. "Could you go see if Grandpa and the others are on their way back?" The boy nodded before he ran off.

"Now then." Kakashi grunted as he pushed himself to his elbows, "Where's my mask?"

* * *

"You think Kakashi-sensei has woken up yet?" Naruto asked as he, Sasuke, and Tazuna walked back from the construction site. "I want to start training again as soon as possible."

"I agree." Sasuke replied, biting into the temptation to rattle Naruto's cage a little bit. "Ever since I started training with him, sparring with you has gotten way too easy."

"What was that you smug little bastard?" Naruto hissed, "In case you forgot, I beat you yesterday."

"Sakura said it was a tie."

"Oh come on, she's biased towards you and you know it."

While his two guardians argued, Tazuna couldn't help but smile. Ever since they had arrived back in town, the two children before him had been training with one another whenever they weren't busy watching over him. Having seen their fight against Zabuza and watched them train a few times, Tazuna had decided that he was wrong about them. They could definitely handle any thugs Gato sent. And once Kakashi was back on his feet, Tazuna was sure that even if Gato could hire another man like Zabuza, they meet would end up meeting the same fate. Things were finally looking up for their little country.

"Fine if that's how you want it we'll have a tie breaker when we get back." Naruto declared, a smile across his face.

"You're on." Sasuke replied as Tazuna's grandson Inari ran up to them.

"The silver man's awake." He told them, looking at them with his dispassionate eyes. It took the two genin a moment to realize that Inari was talking about Kakashi.

"How's he doing?" Naruto asked in rapid fire succession, "Can he move? Is he a cripple? Oh God he's a cripple isn't he? Why? Why are the fates so cruel?" His questions were only stopped by a hard thump to the back of his head. "What the hell was that for?"

"For being a loud mouth idiot." Sasuke replied before turning to the small child. "How is our sensei?"

"How should I know?" Inari looked to his grandfather. "I'm going down to the docks." As the small boy left Tazuna just shook his head.

"What's his problem?" Naruto asked rubbing the back of his head.

"It's a long story." Tazuna said. "Now come on. Tsunami should have dinner ready by the time we get back, and I'm sure your sensei wishes to speak with you." But Naruto was looking after the boy heading to docks.

"You guys go on ahead I'll catch up." Naruto said as he moved.

"Kakashi will be expecting us," Sasuke reminded him.

"With all the times that guy's been late, I think he can suffer to wait a few minutes." Naruto countered. Sasuke could only shrug in response.

"Try not to get your ass kicked this time." Sasuke called after him. Naruto gave Sasuke the one fingered salute as he walked away. Sasuke chuckled. When he saw Tazuna's questioning stare he shrugged, "It's a long story."

* * *

When they got back to the house, they found Kakashi sitting at the main table in the dining room with a plate of food before him. He was wearing his mask again and Sasuke couldn't help but wonder if Kakashi felt naked without it. He wasn't wearing his flak jacket and gloves to the dinner table, so why keep the mask? In the end, Sasuke decided it didn't matter as he took a seat next to Sakura. _'Let the man keep his strange mask fetish. Just so long as he helps me get stronger.'_

"Where's Naruto?" Kakashi asked upon noticing the blond was missing.

"I think he went down to the docks." Sasuke said as he started loading food onto his plate.

"What's he doing down there?" Sakura asked, her face slightly red from the fact that from all the empty seats, Sasuke chose the one next to her.

'_If it's anything like last time he's getting strangled by now.'_ Sasuke thought before saying. "I think he wanted to talk to Inari about something."

Kakashi nodded, "Well hopefully he gets back soon." In the back of his head Kakashi couldn't help but feel like there was a very crucial detail he was missing.

* * *

When Naruto found the docks, Inari was sitting on the edge hugging his knees to his chest. '_Well this seems familiar.' _Naruto thought as he walked up behind Inari. "You ok?"

The boy jumped slightly at Naruto's voice. When he turned around Naruto could see that his eyes were puffy from crying. "I'm fine." The child lied as he hurriedly tried to wipe his eyes clear. "Why wouldn't I be?" Naruto raised an eyebrow before gesturing to his eyes. Inari just sniffed before he turned back to the water. Naruto figured the boy wanted to be left alone, and he should probably respect that.

'_But when have I ever taken the hint?' _Naruto thought as he sat down next the boy. "You know a friend of mine used to always go down the docks at Konoha whenever he got upset." In truth Sasuke still does. "I never really bought it when he told me nothing was wrong either. So you sure you don't want to tell me what's up? Maybe I could help."

"It's none of your business!" Inari shouted, fresh tears flowing down his cheeks. "And unless you can turn back time there's nothing you can do to help! So just shut up and leave me alone!" With that Inari stood up and ran off, leaving Naruto alone.

"Turn back time huh?" Naruto said as he watched Inari run off. "If only I could kid. If only."

* * *

It took Naruto about ten minutes to find his way back to Tazuna's. When he finally walked through the door he found everyone sitting around the dinner table eating. "Sorry I'm late." Naruto said as he took the last empty seat across from Inari, "Glad you guys didn't wait for me to eat."

"Well I figured if we ended up waiting for you, all of Tsunami's hard work cooking for us would've gone to waste." Kakashi teased, his plate already cleared. All three of his students just glared at him.

"Sensei, do you know the definition of irony?" Sakura asked. Kakashi just smiled.

"Anyway, now that I'm awake it's about time we got back to training." Kakashi stated. "Tomorrow morning we'll start working on your chakra control."

"How are we going to do that?" Naruto asked, excited at the prospect of training.

"It's a surprise." Kakashi stated, his eye smiling as always. All three of his students looked at him skeptically. "But that's for tomorrow, tonight we should have a little R&amp;R. Naruto could you help me back to my room."

"But I'm not done eating." Naruto protested with his mouth full of half chewed food.

"Ugh, Naruto you're so gross." Sakura gagged, "Finish chewing your food before you talk."

Properly chastised Naruto swallowed his food before continuing. "Why not have Sasuke help you out? He's almost done with his."

"There's something I want to talk to about." Kakashi clarified, "Unless you want me to teach Sasuke about a super cool jutsu instead of you." What followed was the single most impressive display of speed eating anyone present had ever seen, as Naruto practically inhaled his entire plate in a single all-consuming gulp. His food gone Naruto was out of his chair and practically dragging Kakashi to his room.

"So what's this cool jutsu you were talking about?" Naruto asked as he helped lower Kakashi onto his bed. "Is it that giant water dragon you used on Zabuza?"

"Actually it's one you already know." Kakashi replied. "The Wind Claws I believe Arashi named them. Would you mind doing the jutsu for me?"

"Sure." Naruto said, slowly going through the hand seals. Once he finished he held out his right hand as a jagged line of wind chakra ran along each finger. With the jutsu performed in front of him Kakashi examined Naruto's clawed hand.

"Hmm, the claws are a little too jagged to be used as intended." Kakashi told him, "With these you'll scratch but not slice."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, a little upset he wasn't using his brother's jutsu properly.

"Wind chakra is one of the most difficult natures to master, especially in our village where it's so rare." Kakashi explained, "It requires refinement in order to maximize its cutting potential. How does the Jetstream jutsu affect your target?"

"The wind pushes against the target with the force of a strong punch." Naruto answered, "You told me so yourself."

"I did, but that's only at the beginner's level. As you get more skilled in refining your wind, each little current in the Jetstream will be capable of cutting a man to the bone. A master of that jutsu can clear an entire section of forest with a single breath. The same principle applies to every type of wind nature jutsu. Including this one." Kakashi noticed that Naruto looked lost in thought.

"So how do I get better?" he finally asked.

Kakashi smiled, "Well fortunately for you I happen to be adept at some wind jutsu, and I even helped your brother create this one, so I can help you build a foundation while we're here. Once we get back to Konoha I'll introduce you to a friend of mine who has your chakra nature. He'll help you a lot more than I can. Now go finish eating, I'm sure you're still hungry."

"Thank you sensei." Naruto bowed before he left the room. Before he reached the door however he turned to Kakashi with questioning look on his face. "Kakashi Sensei?"

"Yes Naruto?" Kakashi asked as he moved to lie down on his bed.

"How well did you know Arashi?"

Kakashi looked at his blonde student, "What do you mean?"

"You said you helped Arashi develop the Wind Claws. And when he di… went missing, I was told you were leading the team that searched for him."

Kakashi was silent for a moment. "Your brother was a good friend to me. I'm sorry I wasn't able to save him."

"It's not your fault." Naruto assured him, "You did your best."

'_It just wasn't enough.'_ Was the unspoken truth said by both of them.

* * *

"Promise to teach Naruto a new jutsu and he's suddenly the greatest student ever." Sasuke chuckled as he and Sakura watched the blonde drag Kakashi to his room.

"Shame he was never this excited to learn at the academy." Sakura commented, "He might've actually been close to top of the class." For a moment the two imagined the 'dead last' student as a studious young man. The two of them laughed at the shared mental image of Naruto with large glasses, and his pants pulled high over his stomach. A few minutes later Naruto came back to the table.

"So what did Kakashi want to teach you?" Sasuke asked.

"He said he was going to help me with my wind style jutsu." Naruto answered somberly as he put more food on his plate. The tone did not go unnoticed by his teammates.

"What's wrong Naruto?" Sakura asked, "You're usually so excited about new training."

"What? Nothing's wrong." Naruto said, a forced smile appearing on his face. "Just hungry is all."

"I don't know why you guys are even bothering to stick around." Inari muttered, stabbing his food with his chopsticks. The three Konoha genin looked over to the young boy. "It doesn't matter what kind of training you do. Gato is still gonna kill you all if you don't get out of here."

"Oh please we already beat Zabuza." Naruto huffed, "I doubt Gato has anyone else like him under his employ. We'll be fine."

"Would you just shut up?" Inari shouted at the blonde, tears flowing from his eyes. "You don't anything about how terrible Gato is! He'll have you all killed then punish the rest of us for your stupidity!"

"Inari that's enough!" Tazuna said, slamming his fist down on the table.

"No." Naruto cut in, "Let him talk. I want to hear what he has to say."

"You all think you're strong. Gato's got enough men to take you all out." Inari continued. "He's made an example of everyone who's ever stood up to him and you'll be no different. Just like my father, you'll all die and things will be even worse for us."

"So that's it huh?" Naruto asked, "Your dad's killed by a man with a few thugs and you just give up on standing up for yourself? You just roll over and let him boss you around. Well fuck that. If I was like you I never would've been able to live with myself."

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted. "That's going too far!" Naruto didn't say another thing as he left his food covered plate and went to the room that he and Sasuke shared. A few moments of awkward silence passed before Inari pushed away from the table and, sobbing, left the room.

"Inari. Come ba..." Tsunami started going after her son.

"Wait." Sasuke cut her off, while standing from his own seat. "Let me talk to him." Tsunami looked doubtful but after some assurance from Sakura she nodded her consent.

Sasuke found Inari sobbing on the porch with his knees hugged to his chest. "Mind if I sit with you?" the Uchiha asked, startling the younger boy with his sudden appearance. Inari said nothing, so Sasuke took it as a 'if you want to' and sat next to the boy. "Naruto can be a bit rash but he means well. He understands what you had to go through."

"How would he or any of you know what I've gone through?" Inari snapped, "Your families are all waiting for you back at your village. Mine could be gone any day here."

Sasuke's expression saddened. "Well that's where you're wrong." Inari looked over to the young Uchiha, confused, "Sakura definitely has her parents waiting for her back at Konoha, and Kakashi might have someone, though I rather doubt it, but as for Naruto and myself… Naruto was orphaned at a young age. All he had to look after him was his older brother. That is until about five years ago. Naruto's brother, Arashi, was sent on a mission to capture a very dangerous criminal. This criminal was guaranteed much more dangerous than your Gato, and Arashi was a skilled ninja. He killed Arashi on that mission. No body was recovered so Naruto never even got to say goodbye. That day I think is when Naruto decided that he wouldn't ever give up."

"What did the criminal do?" Inari asked.

Sasuke had to fight the tears back, "He killed my entire clan. My mother and father, my aunts and uncles, everyone. From men as old as your grandpa to children younger than you. That monster killed everyone except me."

Inari was horrified by what Sasuke was telling him, "Who was this monster?" he asked, voice trembling, using Sasuke's word for him.

Sasuke looked Inari in the eyes, "He was my brother. So believe me when I say you aren't alone when it comes to the pain of losing someone you love. Naruto and I have both gone through what you have. Now the question is what will you do, and this goes for your country as a whole. Will you give up and let the monsters you fear rule your life? Or will you unite and stand up to them and fight them off." Sasuke gave Inari a gentle pat on the shoulder before he went back inside. Inari stared after the Uchiha and dried his eyes. He was done crying.

* * *

_When night fell Kyosuke led Kakashi through the prison camp. While he was being led Kakashi memorized the route they were taking it probably wasn't the most effective route, in fact Kyosuke was probably trying to get him either lost or caught by a passing patrol, but it was all Kakashi had so he'd make the most of it. Surprisingly Kyosuke didn't lead him to any traps or ambushes and within a few minutes they were standing in front of a cage with a young woman chained up inside._

"_Rin?" Kakashi whispered, just loud enough for the brunette prisoner to hear. Slowly the girl lifted her head and Kakashi found himself looking into the eyes of his target._

"_Kakashi?" Rin asked. "What are you doing here?"_

"_I'm getting you out of here." Kakashi replied, "Open the door." Kyosuke nodded as he slowly reached for his keys. Once he unlocked the door he cautiously turned to Kakashi and stared at him quizzically._

"_So what now Kakashi?" Kyosuke asked knowing what was about to happen._

"_I'm sorry." Kakashi said as he pulled out a shuriken._

"_As am I." Kyosuke responded reaching into a pocket on his flak jacket._

_In a flash the two ninja had both thrown their weapons. Kakashi's shuriken cut into Kyosuke's neck and cut the carotid artery, while two senbon needles buried themselves into Kakashi's shoulder. Kyosuke fell to the ground and Kakashi remained standing. Within moments Kakashi had freed Rin, who promptly removed the two needles and checked if they were poisoned._

"_You're lucky." Rin stated after confirming they weren't, "He was trying to put you in coma. A few more inches to the left and they would've hit your neck."_

"_Wouldn't that kill me?"_

"_Not with senbon." Rin stated. "Senbon can rarely kill."_

* * *

Kakashi woke up with a start. "Oh no." he muttered as he recalled his fight with Zabuza. Why hadn't he seen it before? ANBU destroy their targets body on sight, immediately. The child had carried Zabuza, dead weight away from the battlefield.

"_Senbon can rarely kill."_

There was no doubt in Kakashi's mind. Zabuza Momochi was still alive.

* * *

_Zabuza is still alive which means it's time for Naruto and friends to train like there's no tomorrow. Next Time: A Land of Heroes Part 2: Advancement_


	14. A Land of Heroes Part Two: Advancement

Zabuza Momochi was getting very tired of this short hairy man constantly shouting at him. The former Kiri ninja had half a mind to liberate Gato's fat head from his short stubby body, but decided against it. At least until he got paid, in the meantime Zabuza would play the good mercenary and not kill his employer. Besides, loathe as he was to admit it, Zabuza actually doubted he could lift his giant sword, let alone swing it fast enough to kill Gato and his two ronin bodyguards, bedridden as he was. He was however tempted to just have Haku, who patiently waited at his bedside for orders, kill the noisy bastard.

"You idiot!" Gato shouted, "How could you let one man and his three brats beat you? You promised to deliver Tazuna's head to me. So tell me _Mr. Demon, _where is the old man's head?"

Zabuza couldn't help it, he allowed just a hint of snark into his voice, "Still attached to his body."

A furious scowl etched itself across Gato's ugly visage as he brought his hand back. The short man swung it downward, intending to strike Zabuza's vulnerable neck, only to find his arm in a steel like grip. Surprised Gato turned to Haku, who despite having stoically watched the entire to this point had apparently decided enough was enough.

"I will not allow you to lay a single finger on Lord Zabuza." The effeminate boy growled, ice clinging to each syllable. To emphasize this Haku tightened his grip on Gato's arm.

"S-st-stop, you're b-br-breaking it!" Gato cried as he felt his bone about to pop. At that moment Gato's two bodyguards stepped forward, katanas free from their sheaths. Faster than any eye in the room could follow Haku flashed over to the two ronin, took their swords out of their hands and with a single motion, beheaded the both of them.

"You wanted a man's head, well there you go." Zabuza said, smiling underneath his bandages.

Gato swallowed the bile that was rising up his throat before speaking again, "Just make sure you deliver on your end of the deal. Otherwise no force on earth will keep you safe from my fury." With that Gato left the room, steering clear of the decapitated ronin's bodies while cradling his arm. Despite his threat neither Zabuza nor Haku were worried, for they could both smell the urine that was undoubtedly staining the front of the mob bosses trousers.

"That might've been a tad much Haku." Zabuza said, eyeing the head of one of the ronin as it rolled toward his bed.

Haku shrugged, "He needed to learn some manners about dealing with his betters. Still you may be right." Haku picked up both the severed heads and tossed them out the window. "I shall dispose of these bodies." Haku grabbed the corpses by their ankles and proceeded to drag them outside.

"When you finish collect the Demon Brothers." Zabuza ordered, "Gato won't forget this and it would be good to have some insurance."

* * *

"So children," Kakashi started as he stood in front of his students supported by crutches, "Who here knows the tree climbing technique?" The silver haired jonin was pleasantly surprised when all three of his young charges raised their hands. Just to make sure they weren't lying to impress him Kakashi had each of them climb up a tree without using their hands. "It's good to see Iruka didn't slack off in teaching you children slightly advance techniques." He commented after they satisfied him.

None of the genin had the heart to tell him that they had each learned the technique on their own, through various reasons. Sakura had wanted to impress Sasuke with the technique, Naruto had wanted to see if he could do it after reading a comic about a shinobi who could climb up walls like a spider, and Sasuke had learned to do it only because Naruto insisted that they try it and like almost everything back then, it became a competition.

"Well then if you all have that under your belts, then instead I'll teach you guys how to walk on the surface of water. Follow me." Kakashi led the three genin out of the woods by Tazuna's house to the docks. In the town. "Who can tell me how the tree climbing technique works?" he asked as they walked.

"The tree climbing technique works by focusing and channeling ones chakra through the soles of their feet." Sakura began.

"Why are we learning this?" Naruto interrupted, "We already know how it works."

Sakura responded by smacking Naruto over his head and continued on, "The chakra then allows the shinobi to stick to any surface and walk on it like an insect…"

"Or a spider." Naruto snickered, this time Sasuke smacked him.

"… However the amount of chakra used must be precise. Too little and you'll fall, too much and you'll launch yourself off the surface you want to stick to."

"Very good Sakura, that's exactly right." Kakashi stated as the docks came into view. "The same principle applies to walking on water, but it requires a little more flexibility." When they reached the docks, Kakashi gathered chakra around his feet and continued limping forward without breaking stride. Soon he was standing on the water's surface, completely oblivious that his students had stopped at the docks. "In order to do this properly, you have maintain the chakra around your feet and constantly adjust it to stay on the water's surface."

"That doesn't sound too hard." Naruto said, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"Then why don't you join me out here?" Kakashi challenged. Naruto smirked as he started to channel chakra through his soles. Once he felt he had enough he leapt off the dock and landed on the water's surface… and immediately sank beneath the waves. "Not as easy as it looks is it Naruto?" Kakashi laughed as Naruto pulled himself back onto the docks, soaked head to toe. "So who thinks they can reach me first?"

* * *

It took the three genin about a half hour, and several dips into the water, to achieve a state of competency with water walking. While Sakura was able to stand comfortably on the water's surface, Sasuke still sunk to his ankles while Naruto sank to his knees.

"Not too bad after a half hour of practice. Shouldn't be too long now before you guys get the hang of it." Kakashi said to Naruto and Sasuke. "Sakura I want you to start practicing jutsu while standing on the water." While he spoke he made a shadow clone appear next to him. "Naruto make a shadow clone continue this training. You and I are going to start working on your wind chakra."

"Yes sir." Naruto responded as he made his own shadow clone, that immediately sank beneath the surface. The four of them all just stared in amazement as the clone tried to climb onto the water's surface, cursing the whole time. "Can we just go?"

"So how are we going to do this?" Naruto asked as water continued to drip from his clothes. Kakashi handed Naruto a leaf. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Split it in half with your chakra." Kakashi instructed. "Imagine your chakra is a razor sharp blade and channel it through your fingers."

Naruto nodded as he held the leaf in front of him, channeled his chakra through his fingers and visualized the leaf splitting in half. After staring at the leaf for what seemed like an hour with zero progress, Naruto growled as he violently tore the leaf into shreds with his hands.

"Argh, why isn't this working?" he muttered, staring at the shredded pieces in his hand.

"Well for starters you aren't focusing enough." Kakashi advised. "You can't expect to get results instantly."

"Well let me see you do it." Naruto said, "Maybe it'll make it easier for me watching someone else do it."

Kakashi shrugged as he plucked another leaf from a tree and held it in front of Naruto. "Now bear in mind, wind isn't my chakra nature so it'll take a little more for me to do this than it will for you when you get the hang of it." With that Kakashi went silent as he focused on the leaf. Naruto watched fascinated as the leaf started to crinkle, before it finally tore itself in half. "There you go. Now ready to try again?" Kakashi asked handing another leaf to Naruto. The blonde genin smiled as he accepted the leaf and again started to focus on shearing it with chakra alone.

* * *

Inari watched from behind a tree as Naruto focused rather intently on his leaf. The young boy had been observing the ninja ever since their argument a few days ago. He was naturally a little confused when his first day of observation consisted of little more than watching Naruto stare at a leaf for hours on end. The next day he had observed all three of them do something that was quite frankly impossible. They walked along the water's surface as though it were solid land. Weren't they afraid of drowning? Now on the third day Inari watched as Naruto stood in the center of a pond, holding his leaf out in front of him, glaring at it like he wanted it to spontaneously combust. Inari knew that the blonde would keep at it for hours so he decided it wasn't worth his time to watch something so pointless. He decided to go home early.

"Are you actually gonna say something one of these days?" Naruto called out as Inari was turning around. "Cause I got to say, it's a little annoying being followed everywhere by someone who won't talk to you."

Feeling that the jig was up, Inari walked out from under the tree and approached the pond. Naruto in turn dropped the leaf and walked off the water. Naruto sat on the soft grass at the edge of the water and gestured for Inari to join him. The boy sat next to him. The two stared at each other for a long while. Naruto broke the silence.

"So Sasuke told me about your chat with him." Naruto said. Inari nodded. "I asked your grandfather what happened to your father. I'm sorry, he sounded like he was a good man." Another nod, Inari was fighting to keep tears back. Naruto took a deep sigh, "I'm sorry about what I said. I can be a bit of a…"

"Jack ass." Inari offered, a small smile on his face.

"I was gonna say jerk, but that works too." Naruto laughed. The two of them shared a laugh together.

"So what are you doing?" Inari asked.

Naruto groaned, "I'm trying to split a damned leaf using only my chakra. It's much harder than it sounds." He added once he noticed look on Inari's face that just screamed, '_How weak are if you can't even split a single leaf?' _

"What good will that do?"

"Watch this." Naruto said as he made the hand seals for the wind claws. Just as before the line of wind chakra ran along the fingers of his right hand, although this time they were a lot straighter, and extended a little beyond his fingertips. Inari's eyes widened a bit at the sight of the jutsu. Naruto smiled as he walked over to a tree and slashed it with his hands. Five deep, narrow gouges appeared in the wood where his hand struck it.

"That's so cool." Inari said.

"You should see what it can do when it's done right." Naruto said letting the jutsu drop, "My brother would've cut that tree down with a single finger." Inari smiled at that but quickly noticed that Naruto's mood had shifted a bit at the mention of his brother.

"You miss him don't you?" the boy asked.

"There was so much I wanted to talk to him about." Naruto started, "Mostly about our parents. He didn't like talking about them much you see. He'd usually start telling a story about them before he'd trail off and go silent. It would always end the same, '_Our parents loved you very much Naruto_.' He'd refuse to say anything else about them afterwards. One time Arashi came home drunk and he…" Naruto trailed off as he noticed Inari's face become slightly horrified, "What?"

"He didn't beat you did he?"

"What? No, no. Arashi wasn't a violent drunk. If anything he became friendlier and chattier. That was the first and only time he actually finished a story about our parents. I asked him if he knew how they met. He proceeded to tell me this story about ninja from an enemy nation had kidnapped our mom and how father had tracked them down and saved her." Naruto smiled at the memory, "He still said the same thing afterwards though. '_Your parents loved you very much Naruto.'" _

"You mean 'our'." Inari corrected. Naruto gave him a questioning look. "You said he would always say 'Our parents' but just then you said 'Your parents'."

"He probably meant our but was too drunk to catch himself." Naruto justified, but Inari could tell Naruto wasn't too sure about his excuse. "Or maybe I'm just remembering it wrong. I mean it was over six years ago."

"Do you really think you guys can stop Gato?" Inari asked.

Naruto looked at the small boy and nodded, "Inari, I promise you so long as we're around, Gato and his goons won't be able to do a thing to you or your town." Despite himself and his multiple misgivings, Inari found himself believing him.

* * *

Kakashi limped across the living room of Tazuna's home. Over the past five days Kakashi had mostly recovered from his bout with Zabuza. The silver haired jonin lowered himself on a chair and thought of the progress his students were making. Kakashi was impressed, water walking was a deceptively tricky technique to learn and yet his young charges had all but mastered the art in a matter of days. After five days of practice Sakura and Sasuke were now able to comfortably cast several jutsu whilst standing on the water's surface. In addition Naruto was also making great progress in his wind chakra training. He was able to completely tear through the leaf on dry land. While standing on the water create a tear half-way through the leaf. Kakashi smiled as he thought of how much the three of them had grown since they had become his responsibility not too long ago. As tempting as it was to take all the credit for their improvement, Kakashi knew that these children would've excelled no matter who had been assigned their sensei.

'_Maybe I'll recommend them for the next Chunin exams.' _Kakashi considered. _'They seem capable enough. Gonna have to work more with Sakura to get her caught up though.'_ Even though the girl was miles ahead of her teammates in terms of chakra control and she had a fair amount of talent in genjutsu, she had fallen rather far behind in her taijutsu and ninjutsu. A little work with her would solve that issue though, and Kakashi was sure that her teammates would be more than happy to assist her.

The sound of breaking glass brought Kakashi out of his thought. In a flash the jonin was on his feet, grabbing a cane in his hand and scanning the room. A rock lay amongst the shattered glass from the window. From outside Kakashi could hear several voices.

"What's going on?" Tsunami asked, Inari following close behind her.

"Stay inside." Kakashi ordered, as he limped towards the door. "Let me handle this." With that the silver haired jonin stepped outside and found himself staring down a large group of men, brandishing a multitude of weapons. Gato had been busy it looked like.

"That must be one of the ninja the old fart hired!" Kakashi heard one shout.

"How sad that all he could afford was a cripple and a bunch of kids!" another responded.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake, jonin of Konoha." Kakashi announced to the mob assembled before him. "Leave now and I'll let you go."

"Would you listen to this fucker." One of the mob shouted to his cohorts, "The cripple thinks we're afraid of…" the man was cut off as a kunai buried itself into his throat. Stunned into silence the mob looked at Kakashi who stood with his cane in one hand and a second kunai in the other.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Kakashi said as he limped towards the group. The mob in response screamed as they charged him. Just before the mob flowed over him, Kakashi leapt into their midst, and, upon landing, smacked one of the men on his crown with his cane. Before any of the mob could react, Kakashi had already struck down three more of their number through a series of quick but debilitating strikes with his wooden support. Finally the mob recovered enough to start attacking the ninja, but most found their weapons blocked by the kunai held in Kakashi's other hand, before his cane struck out against them. Despite his limp Kakashi was fast as lightning as his cane jabbed throats, struck knees and elbows, and shattered groins.

When Kakashi noticed a few of the mob break off from the engagement towards the house, he was quick to intercept them. Holding his cane by the opposite end, he hooked the handle around one man's groin before yanking him to the side. A man who sought to take advantage of Kakashi's occupied cane, stabbed at him with a spear. Kakashi let the cane go and grabbed the spear by the shaft as he dodged to the side. His kunai cut open the man's throat as he pulled the spear out of his hands and hurled it into the stomach of another. The man with the mistreated groin was starting to recover when Kakashi kicked him square in the face, cracking his skull.

Momentarily free from the battle, Kakashi made a single shadow clone and ordered it to go check on Tazuna and his team. The clone nodded before it ran off. Looking back at his numerous foes, some of whom were recovering from his less devastating strikes, Kakashi retrieved his cane and readied himself for round two.

"So who's next?" he asked when a scream from the house reached his ears.

* * *

Team 7 was silent as they all readied their equipment. Between the four of them, they had about 100 shuriken, twelve smoke bombs, eight kunai, and four windmill shuriken. Kakashi had been mostly successful in repelling the main force of attackers at the house. Unfortunately a second, smaller wave had come through the back of the house and had managed to kidnap Inari. Kakashi was able to save Tsunami from the attackers, and by the time the others had gotten back from the bridge, Kakashi had either driven off or killed the rest of the attackers, and was in the process of interrogating the survivors. As it turned out, Gato had gotten tired of waiting for Zabuza to recover and had decided to act on his own. He had also learned the location of Gato's hideout.

"Alright guys, here's our current mission." Kakashi said to the assembled Team 7. "We infiltrate Gato's hideout, find Inari and get him out of there. If we run into resistance we take them out. If you see Gato…" Kakashi let the silence hang for a few moments, "Kill him."

* * *

Inari glared hatefully at the short ugly man in the business suit, with his right arm in a cast, who stood before him. Behind Gato, a group of people consisting of a large man with an even larger slab of metal strapped to his back, and young effeminate boy in a mask, and two men with metal claws and armor, stood watching them.

"Just so you know child." Gato said after taking a long drag from his cigar, "This wouldn't be happening if your damned grandfather didn't insist on building his damned bridge. I would've been perfectly content to leave well enough alone, but he just won't take no for an answer. He's the one who keeps escalating this. He's the one who forced my hand by hiring Konoha's ninja."

At the mention of Naruto and his team Inari muttered something under his breath.

"What was that boy?" Gato asked, "Speak up."

"I said Naruto and his friends are going to kill you." Gato's ugly face became even uglier as it contorted in anger. Gato slapped Inari across his face and the boy simply spat in his.

"I like this kid." The big man laughed, "He's got guts."

"If he keeps this up, I'll have you show them to him." Gato hissed as he stormed out the room, leaving Inari alone with the four ninja.

"They will come." Inari shouted after him. The big man continued laughing.

"We're counting on it kid." He said as he and the others left him in his cell alone.

* * *

_Team 7 engages in a daring rescue against Gato's forces. Next time A Land of Heroes Part Three: Rescue_

* * *

**AN: Well this was a fun chapter to write. Especially Kakashi vs the mob, had a lot of fun with that. So anyways about one or two chapters to go before this arc is complete. It's been fun but I can't wait to get to the Chunin Exams. Heh heh, that's where I'll really start mixing things up. Anyway please read and review and see y'all next time.**


	15. A Land of Heroes Part Three: Rescue

Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke observed the patrols around the large building carefully noting the routes taken by the men around the perimeter. There were three on the ground and five on the roof.

"So what's the plan Kakashi Sensei?" Naruto asked, eyeing the patrols. '_Don't worry Inari, I'm coming to get you.'_

Kakashi looked over at the building again, when they had found the building Kakashi had summoned his ninja hounds to scout the building out. When the hounds reported back the smallest one, Pakkun, informed them that the building itself had only one entrance, but Bull, the largest of the pack, discovered what appeared to be a tunnel that lead under the building, most likely an emergency exit.

"Alright here's the plan." Kakashi said to his team, "I'll go in through the front door and keep their attention on me. You guys follow Pakkun through the tunnel and infiltrate from there."

"You gonna be alright sensei?" Sakura asked, a slight trace of fear evident on her face.

"Don't worry about me." Kakashi said with a smile, "After that workout yesterday I feel like I'm back at one hundred percent." The three genin all nodded.

"Good luck sensei." Naruto said as he and his teammates headed towards the tunnel. With that team 7 separated to begin their rescue mission. Meanwhile, hidden within a puddle of water, the demon brothers observed the Konoha ninja initiate their plan.

"Sir, they've taken the bait." One of them said into a radio. "Kakashi Hatake is going to act as a diversion while his genin sneak in through emergency exit."

"_Ignore Kakashi, you two aren't strong enough to take him on."_ Zabuza's voice responded through their earpieces, "_Focus on the genin. Don't kill them yet."_

"Yes sir." The brothers replied in unison. Once they cut the connection the two emerged from the puddle and stared after the Konoha ninja. The two looked at each other and without speaking nodded. They took off after Kakashi Hatake.

* * *

"What do you mean you're still going to work on the bridge?" Tsunami practically exploded at her father once he told her that despite the recent attack he still had every intention of continued construction of the bridge.

"Someone's got to do it." Tazuna stated as he put on his hard hat, "And I don't trust half of those idiots out there to stick around without me there."

"My son, your grandson, has been kidnapped, and you're just going to keep going as if nothing happened?" she yelled, tears gathering in her eyes. "Aren't you at all worried?"

"Of course I am." Tazuna whispered. "I'm absolutely terrified. If I could I would drop everything and be joining the ninjas in their rescue, but I'd only get in the way. So instead of being frozen by fear, instead I'm going to do what I can do, and trust Kakashi and the others to get Inari out safely." There was a moment of silence as father and daughter stared at one another. His argument made Tazuna turned to leave.

"Wait." Tsunami said. Tazuna stopped and turned to his daughter, who had retreated into her room. A few minutes later Tsunami emerged from the room having replaced her pink and blue dress with a white work shirt and brown coveralls. Her long hair was pulled into a ponytail, and under her arm was a hardhat like Tazuna's "Let's go." Tazuna smiled as he followed his daughter.

* * *

Tsunami wiped the sweat from her forehead as she put the heavy bag of cement next to the mixer. With short heavy breaths she brought her water bottle to her lips and took a long gulp of it, before she cut the bag open and poured its contents into the rotating machine. Once the gravel was in the mixer she paused to look over to her father and the three men who had actually showed up today.

Despite her worry over her son's fate, Tsunami smiled. Her father was selflessly putting his life on the line by trying to complete this bridge so their country could be a better place, and now she was helping it along. Gato had attacked her home and kidnapped her son in order to intimidate them, but they would not be intimidated. Even now her son was being rescued by the very ninja who'd kept her father safe from Gato's assassins, and who'd defended her home from the army of thugs at his disposal.

Gato's time was coming to its end. She could sense it. '_Are you watching this Kaiza? We're saving our home just like you.'_ Tsunami couldn't be sure whether or not her husband's spirit heard her from the afterlife, but at that moment she felt a calm reassurance come over her.

"How's it going over here?" a voice intruded on her thoughts, causing Tsunami to turn to face the speaker. One of the workers, a short man named Giso, had come over carrying a small set of tools with him. "How's the cement mixing?" he asked looking inside the mixer.

"It's fine." Tsunami replied, checking the mixture herself.

"Yeah looks about ready." Giso said, "Let's pour it in." Tsunami nodded as the poured the cement into the hole where it would harden into another piece of the bridge. As they worked a thick blanket of fog started to roll over the construction site. At the sight of the fog Tsunami noticed Giso becoming slightly uncomfortable.

"Are you alright?" she asked the construction worker.

"I think we should go over to the others." Giso said as he pulled what looked like a cross between a hand shovel and a knife from his bag.

"Why what's wrong?"

"Just trust me. If this is what I think it is, we don't want to be isolated."

Tsunami nodded and together they made their way back over to where Tazuna was talking with the other two workers. "Something wrong?" the older man asked.

"I don't like the look of this fog." Giso said gesturing to the heavy mist.

"You've got good instincts there." A deep voice rasped from deep within the mist. Tsunami and the others all spun in the direction of the voice to see two figures approaching them. As they got nearer Tsunami was able to make out some of their features. One of the new comers was a tall man in dark clothes with white bandages wrapped around his face, not unlike Kakashi's mask. Strapped to his back was the single largest sword Tsunami had ever seen. The second one in contrast to the first was small, judging by height Tsunami felt that he couldn't be much older than Naruto and the others. He wore a green haori over brown clothes and wore a porcelain mask to conceal his face.

"Za-Zabuza?" Tazuna stuttered as he recognized the intimidating swordsman. "You're alive?"

"Shocking isn't it?" the bandaged man asked. "And this time there's no Kakashi to keep you safe."

* * *

Pakkun paused and sniffed the air again as the genin behind him kept wary eyes out for any guards. While ultimately pointless, as virtually all the guards in this building were currently preoccupied with fighting Kakashi at the main entrance and he could smell all of the ones that weren't, Pakkun appreciated the caution. After a few sniffs Pakkun located Inari's scent.

"This way." The small dog whispered as he padded down the hallway, the genin following close behind. Pakkun followed the scent through a long twisting maze of corridors, the dog made careful note of each turn it took. Finally the dog paused to sniff the air once more.

"Something up?" Naruto asked.

"The child's nearby." Pakkun answered. "This way." Pakkun took off down a corridor with the genin in tow. After a few minutes of running all four of them came sliding to a halt outside of a thick wooden door. "He's in here." Pakkun informed them, sniffing the air, "There are at least four men inside with him." The three genin nodded as they each took a position by the door, Sasuke placed an exploding tag on the door before he got into position. Once they were in place Pakkun padded up to the door and started to rake his nails down the wooden frame, barking all the while.

"What the hell?" a muffled voice called from the inside. "How the hell did a dog get in here?"

"Who cares, just scare it off." Another voice responded.

"Yeah, yeah." The first voice grunted as the handle for the door turned. Pakkun moved away from the door as Sasuke made a seal and lit the explosive on the door. The following blast was small, not enough to blow the door to shrapnel but enough to blast it open and ensure it would never close again. The man who was opening the door was thrown back into one of his companions when the three Genin burst into the room. The two men on the floor were quickly knocked unconscious by a swift kick from Sakura while the remaining two men were just as swiftly dispatched by Naruto and Sasuke. Once all the guards in the room were rendered inert the three genin turned to see Inari, bound and gagged in a chair with a surprised look in his eyes.

"I told you nothing would happen to you while we were here." Naruto said as he started to free the young child. Once the final rope was cut Inari pulled the gag from his mouth and leapt onto Naruto hugging him tightly.

"I knew you guys would come." He cried as Naruto hugged him back. "I knew it."

"We need to get moving now." Sasuke said calmly, "Someone might've heard the explosion and may be on the way." Naruto nodded and gently pulled Inari off of him.

"Stay close to us Inari." The blonde said, "We'll get you home in no time." The little boy nodded and together the five of them started to make their way back outside. Just as the exit came within view Pakkun slid to stop and growled.

"There's someone out there waiting for us." The dog said, just before a series of kunai and shuriken flew into the hallway. The flying blades caught Sakura and Sasuke unaware and before long the two of them were lying on the ground, blades sticking out of them like pincushions. Naruto had just managed to react in time to deflect the blades flying towards him and Inari, and Pakkun and avoid the blades by digging into the floor.

"Well brother. It looks like the blonde brat's gotten better since last time." A voice called as two figures appeared at the tunnels entrance.

"Shame the same can't be said of his friends." The other said as Naruto recognized the two shinobi standing before him.

"Not you guys again." Naruto groaned as he remembered the two Kiri ninja who'd humiliated him at the beginning of this journey. "Didn't we beat you guys bad enough last time?"

"Correction, your sensei defeated us." One brother stated.

"But he's not here is he? The Kakashi who was with you earlier was a clone. And now with your friends dead, you are all alone and outnumbered." It was then that Naruto noticed the slightly charred appearance of the two ninja in front of him.

"Looks like you learned that the hard way." Naruto grinned. It was true, Kakashi had indeed sent a clone with them instead of coming himself, a lightning clone that when destroyed would give a shocking surprise to the poor bastard who did the deed. "And you're wrong about the other things too." Just then Naruto made a single hand seal and both Sasuke and Sakura disappeared in a puff of smoke. "My friends here were just shadow clones I had transform into them. And finally and this is really the most important part." Naruto said as he made his signature hand seal. Suddenly the entire hallway filled with copies of Naruto Uzumaki. "I'm never alone or outnumbered." They all declared as they all pulled kunai from their belts.

* * *

Zabuza couldn't help but smile as he saw the small group of bridge builders step between him and his prey. While he acknowledged their bravery he couldn't help but point out the obvious flaw in their fool hardy exercise. "You lot do realize that against me you might as well just lay down and die right?"

"Things are not always as they appear Zabuza." The one in front stated as he pointed a kunai at him, "It's one of the first rules a ninja learns." And with that the three bridge builders before him disappeared in a puff smoke, only to be replaced by Kakashi Hatake and two of his brats. The dark haired Uchiha and the pink haired girl.

"Oh clever idea." Zabuza sated once the disguises were dropped. "Lure us in by making us think you were no threat. Wouldn't you agree Haku?" the masked child nodded in agreement.

"Indeed Lord Zabuza." Haku stated, "An impressive gambit to be sure."

"So Zabuza, will you have the child save your skin this time too?" Kakashi mocked, "Either way you should feel honored, no one's ever seen my sharingan twice before." Kakashi said as he moved to lift his headband. "But I promise you, you won't be seeing it a third time."

Just as Kakashi was raising his headband however Zabuza rushed forward, kunai in hand and stabbed for Kakashi's scarlet eye. The blade would've stabbed deep into Kakashi's eye socket if he hadn't caught the blade by letting it stab through his palm.

"Allow me to borrow a line you said to me once." Zabuza said as he pulled the blade free from Kakashi's hand. "The same technique won't work on me twice."

* * *

Sakura watched horrified as Zabuza attacked her sensei. She was about to call out to him with Haku's voice whispered in her ear.

"Don't you have more pressing matters to attend to?"

The pink haired girl instinctually flinched as she struck out at the voice only for her hand to be caught in an ice cold vice. She watched as Haku pulled a senbon and moved to stab it into her neck. The needle never reached her as Sasuke blazed forward and caught Haku by the arm with one hand and struck out at him with his other. The masked boy leapt back as he did something Sakura would've sworn was impossible. The Kiri ninja was making a series of hand seals with only one hand.

When Haku landed the various puddles all around them all leapt up into the air and froze into hundreds of razor sharp ice needles.

"Get down." Sasuke shouted as he tackled Sakura to the ground, an instant before the spot they were standing on was turned into a pin cushion. "He's fast." Sasuke said, his sharingan activating. "We'll have to keep on our toes."

"What about Tazuna and Tsunami?" Sakura asked, glancing over to the two noncombatants who were hiding behind a pile of crates.

"For the moment it looks like their more interested in us." Sasuke said as he stood up. "But we shouldn't leave them unguarded." Sasuke stepped forward as Haku started towards them again. "You stay back and watch over them. I'll take care of him." Sakura nodded as the young Uchiha charged forward. She slowly backed towards the two civilians as Sasuke and Haku began their battle. Sakura didn't know much about taijutsu, but she knew enough to know that in terms of pure skill and speed, Haku was the superior of the two. The girl couldn't help but wonder how well Sasuke would fare against such an opponent if he didn't have his sharingan to help him.

As it was however Sasuke was able to block and counter a majority of Haku's attacks, but some were getting through. And with every time one of Haku's attacks got through, Sasuke found another senbon buried into his body. Sakura looked back at the Tazuna and Tsunami unsure of what to do. Should she continue towards them to protect them or should she go assist Sasuke. Sakura stopped her retreat as she saw Sasuke take a particularly savage blow to his face. The young Uchiha was thrown onto his back and Haku stood menacingly over him. When they noticed her looking back and forth between them and her teammate both Tazuna and Tsunami nodded at her. The meaning was clear.

Moving faster than she ever had before in her life, pumping chakra into her legs to increase her speed, Sakura charged forward and leapt into a flying kick that connected with Haku's chest. The masked boy flew back from the force of the kick and rolled to a stop several yards away.

"Sasuke are you ok?" Sakura asked as she helped her teammate to his feet.

"I'm fine. Thank you Sakura."

Sakura turned beat red at the Uchiha's words as they turned to face their opponent. Haku had regained his footing and was staring at the two of them. Any expression his face was making was disguised by his mask, and his body language was too damn neutral to gauge. But when he spoke, his voice was soft and somber.

"Please stand aside." He asked, "I would rather not be forced to kill you two."

"Why so you can kill Tazuna and Tsunami?" Sakura asked as Sasuke stepped forward protectively.

"I hold no ill will towards the bridge builder or his family." Haku replied, "But I am Lord Zabuza's tool, and Zabuza was hired to end the bridge builder and I will assist him in any way I can."

"And we were hired to protect him from people like you." Sasuke said, dropping to a low stance.

"So it seems we are at an impasse." Haku said sadly. "In that case I am truly sorry." Haku then made a hand seal that neither Sasuke nor Sakura had ever seen before. Sensing danger the two genin charged forward to prevent whatever jutsu Haku was about to unleash. They weren't fast enough.

"Ice Release: Crystal Ice Mirrors."

* * *

Naruto panted heavily as he stood across from the equally exhausted Demon Brothers. He had hoped that he could simply overwhelm them through sheer numbers and be on his merry way but it wasn't meant to be. He had managed to push his way out into the open where his numbers advantage would be of greater use but he underestimated the ferocity of the two Kiri ninja before him. They had managed to hold their own against the onslaught of Uzumaki and had even come close to scoring a hit on the real him with their poisonous claws. Naruto looked around at his two remaining clones then at Inari who was still hiding inside the hallway, Pakkun protectively walking around the boy.

Naruto knew he'd have to end this soon or he'd be of no use to others who were most likely fighting at the bridge right now. Naruto caught the eyes of his two clones who both nodded at him. The two clones immediately started flashing through hand seals while Naruto channeled a large amount of chakra through his feet launching him high in the air. Whilst airborne Naruto start the sequence for his wind claws. At the same time the Demon Brothers attacked, one leaping into the air to intercept Naruto while the other charged the two clones. The latter was two slow and before he could respond was consumed by a raging firestorm as Naruto combined his jet stream jutsu with a fireball. The former was focused solely on ending the life of the real Naruto and so didn't notice the small ninja dog charge forward and tackle the Kiri ninja in his stomach.

As he fell backward, Naruto descended with his hand enveloped in slicing wind chakra and landed on his enemy before he plunged his clawed hand through his shoulder. The Demon Brother cried out in pain before Naruto followed it up with a kick to the face.

"One down." Naruto sighed as he turned to see the other ninja was similarly unconscious, his body burned badly by the combined jutsu. "Make that two." With the two ninja defeated Naruto called out to Inari who quickly ran to his side.

"You ok?" the boy asked as Naruto slumped to the ground.

"Fine just need a moment." Naruto said between breaths. "So how'd I do?"

Inari smiled, "That was awesome. I knew you'd be able to beat them."

Naruto smiled at the boy's praise before Pakkun strolled up to them.

"Thanks for the help Pakkun." Naruto as he reached out to scratch the dog behind his ear.

"Hey cut that out." Pakkun protested, as his leg started kicking uncontrollably. Naruto just smiled as he forced himself to his feet.

"Can you get Inari home from here?" he asked the dog, whom nodded in response. "Good, Inari follow Pakkun home ok. I gotta get to the bridge."

"What are you gonna do?" Inari asked as Naruto started walk off.

The blonde smiled, "I'm gonna save the fucking day."

* * *

Haku watched impassively as the two genin before him struggle to their feet. The two of them both resembled pin cushions with the number of senbon he'd thrown at them. They had long since given up on any offensive efforts, his mirrors were indestructible to mere genin, and instead had focused purely on survival. The Uchiha had the worst of it, his sharingan allowed him to follow Haku's movements and he was just fast enough to react to them. So Haku had decided to focus his attacks on the girl, and as he had predicted, the Uchiha kept taking hits for her. None of them had been crippling or life threatening, yet. However Haku was anxious to see this battle end so he could go assist Lord Zabuza in fighting Kakashi.

"I will ask you one last time." Haku said from the safety of his mirrors. "Please surrender, you need not die." The girl had decided to take this opportunity to remove some of the senbon from the boy. Haku allowed it to happen. He'd let them catch their breath for a moment so they could see how hopeless their situation was.

"Why are you so against killing us?" the Uchiha asked. "What does it matter to you?"

"I have killed many people in my service to Lord Zabuza." Haku told them. "Mostly hunter ninja looking to collect on his bounty and clients who try to betray him. I killed them swiftly and without hesitation or remorse, but always for the sake of his safety. But you genin are different from the others I've killed. You're pure. You don't wish for Lord Zabuza's death, only to protect your client. I sympathize with you, but alas I cannot defy Lord Zabuza's wishes. He was hired to see to the bridge builder's death and so will honor his agreement. So I must honor my position as his tool and assist him. And if that means killing you then I will, but not gladly and not without remorse."

"I cannot surrender." The Uchiha said. "I must not surrender. I have a tiny chance of besting you. We both know it. If you must kill me then fine, but please don't hurt Sakura. Unlike me she is of no threat to you at all."

Haku frowned at the Uchiha's stubbornness. At the shocked expression of the girl. Were he capable, Haku would've cried at the tragedy. "What is your name?"

"Sasuke Uchiha, the last of my clan."

"Sasuke Uchiha. Last of the Uchiha. I am Haku Yuki, last of my clan. I will honor your request and remember you for the rest of my life. Prepare yourself." Haku emerged from his mirror and rushed straight towards Sasuke who slid into a defensive crouch. At that moment two things happened. Sakura moved to place herself in front of Sasuke, and an orange blur placed itself in front of them. In that moment Haku threw his senbon as the orange newcomer scored a hit that knocked Haku against one of his mirrors.

Slightly dazed Haku heard Sakura shriek the newcomer's name, "Naruto!" Haku watched as Naruto, with four senbon sticking out of his neck and an additional four near his heart, fell backwards. Haku watched sadly as the blondes teammates rushed to his side.

"Naruto you idiot, what are you doing here?" Sasuke asked as Sakura supported Naruto's head on her lap.

"I saved Inari." Naruto wheezed, "Thought I'd come by and help out."

"Why?" Sakura asked, tears streaming down her face. "Why did you get in the way?"

"I lost my brother already. I didn't want to lose my friends too." Naruto looked at Sasuke who was on the verge of tears. "I'll tell your family you said hi when I see them."

"Shut up you moron." Sasuke sobbed, "You're going to be fine."

Naruto just smiled as blood began to leak from his mouth. "I'll finally… get to see… Arashi again." And with that Naruto closed his eyes.

"Naruto?" Sakura sobbed, gently slapping her fallen comrade, "Naruto wake up. Wake up."

"Is this the first time you've seen a loved one die for you?" Haku asked, his voice somber. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."

That was when Sasuke turned to face Haku, tears rolling down his cheeks, his sharingan blazing. Except it was different than it was before. Instead of the three tomoe that surrounded the pupil, Sasuke's sharingan had taken on a unique pattern of three intercepting ellipses, resembling a star.

"You're not sorry." Sasuke said, "Not yet."

* * *

_Naruto is dead. Sasuke has awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan. Will it be enough to stand up to Haku and his powerful ice release? Next time: The Death of a Swordsman_

* * *

**AN: Well that was fun. So y****eah I gave Sasuke his Mangekyo a "little" early. How this change things up I wonder. To those of you who're afraid that I'll just have him spam Amaterasu to beat Haku, plausible strategy by the way, don't worry. I'm actually trying to come up with something unique for his Mangekyo. I always felt like he got the black flames from Itachi and never actually learned what his specific set of eyes could do. I haven't finalized his**** yet and am going to be taking suggestions if anyone cares to give any. Any who, as always please read and review. **


	16. The Death of a Swordsman

Kakashi breathed heavily as he clutched at his chest, trying to stop the bleeding from the cut Zabuza had given him. He was not doing as well against his opponent as he would've liked. Zabuza had made good on his promise, he wasn't falling for the same tricks as last time. Kakashi had gotten too careless, had let his guard down for just a second when Zabuza's partner had erected that strange prison of ice. And the rogue ninja had taken full advantage of it and managed to score a hit across his chest with that massive sword. If it wasn't for his sharingan, Kakashi knew he'd be dead right now.

Since then Zabuza had taken to staying out of sight, hidden in his damned mist, taunting him. "I'd forgotten about the sharingan's main strength last time Kakashi. I'd stupidly walked right into your genjutsu last time, but not this time. You can't cast a genjutsu on what you can't see."

Kakashi growled as he realized his opponent was right. In this thick fog Kakashi may as well have his eyes closed for all the good it was doing him. And Zabuza was proving to be quite the ventriloquist, throwing his voice all over the place to make sure he couldn't pin him down that way.

_'I can't see him, and I can't follow the sound of his voice. I'd rather not rely on touch or taste. So that leaves smell.'_ It was times like these when Kakashi envied the sense of smell the Inuzuka clan possessed. Almost as strong as the ninja hounds they trained. _'However the Inuzuka aren't the only ones who can train ninja hounds. And with my blood all over his weapons, finding him shouldn't be a problem.'_ Reaching into a pouch on his flak jacket, Kakashi produced a small scroll. Dabbing his thumb in his wound, Kakashi opened the scroll while running the bloody finger down the length of it. Swiftly rolling it back up, Kakashi's hands flashed through a series of seals before he slammed his hands and scroll on the ground.

Moments later there was faint rumble underneath Kakashi's feet as his hounds set to tracking down Zabuza. It didn't take long for them to find their prey. The sounds of his dogs bursting from the ground and sinking their teeth into Zabuza's flesh reached Kakashi's ears. The mist around them began to disappear shortly afterward.

"Ah there you are Zabuza." Kakashi said once the rogue ninja came into view. Not too far in front of him, Zabuza stood pinned to the spot by 7 large dogs, four latched onto his legs, one on each arm, and the largest of the pack had bitten down on his shoulder. Zabuza glared at him with bloodshot eyes. "What was it I told you last time? Your future is death. And this time it'll be by my hand." As he spoke Kakashi flashed his hands through a second set of seals. "This is my one and only original technique." Kakashi informed the trapped ninja as he held his right hand in front of him. "Raikiri." He said as a large amount of lightning gathered in his palm.

* * *

"If they won't help then I'll just have to do it myself." Inari scowled as he placed the cooking pot upon his head. Once he and the small dog Pakkun had separated from Naruto, Inari had convinced the dog to follow him as he tried to rouse the village to take action against Gato. Everywhere he went however the answer was always the same. A fearful "no" through a closed and locked door. With no one to help him Inari resolved to go by himself. Grabbing the small child's crossbow his father had made for him Inari opened the door. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the large crowd of villagers outside his door, all carrying makeshift weapons. Inari smiled.

* * *

Fresh tears streamed down Sakura's face as she tried to gently lay Naruto on the ground. When Sasuke and Haku had restarted their fight, Sakura took the opportunity to escape the prison the Yuki clan member had created. Once they were away from the ice mirrors she had started towards where she had last seen Tazuna and Tsunami. However Naruto's dead weight was too much for her and she was forced to stop about half way. Carefully Sakura started removing the senbon that had claimed Naruto's life.

A part of her was hoping that Naruto would spring back to life once the final needle was pulled out of him. When Naruto didn't suddenly sit up, Sakura knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, her loudmouthed, boisterous, idiotic friend was truly dead. No longer would Naruto loudly declare his intention of becoming Konoha's greatest Hokage. Sakura sobbed as she pressed her forehead against Naruto's still chest. As she cried, the girl was unaware of the wounds in Naruto's neck sealing themselves up.

* * *

Sasuke stepped to the side to avoid Haku's attack before he struck out at the Yuki clan member with a sweeping kick. The Kiri ninja leapt over Sasuke's leg and retreated back into his mirrors. Thanks to his enhanced sharingan Sasuke was easily able to follow the movements of his opponent. Haku moved from mirror to mirror before charging forward, senbon needles held between his fingers ready to stab into Sasuke's flesh. Sasuke winced as he felt the needles dig into his shoulders as Haku tackled him to the ground.

Suddenly Sasuke felt a tremendous strain in his left eye as something rather bizarre occurred. Haku flew off of him, taking his senbon with him, and flowed backwards retreating back into the same mirror that he'd just attacked from. At the same time Sasuke was lifted off of his feet and found himself standing in the same position that he was in just a moment prior. Once he was back on his feet things seemed normal again. Haku once again charged out of the mirror to attack him but this time Sasuke stepped to the side and landed a solid punch to the masked boy's face. The porcelain mask shattered under Sasuke's fist as Haku rolled along the ground, leaving pieces of his trademark mask on the floor. When Haku came to a stop he pushed himself towards the nearest mirror as Sasuke threw a kunai where he had been just millisecond prior.

_'What just happened?'_ Sasuke asked himself as he watched Haku for where Haku would strike next. His left throbbed slightly but the majority of the strain it had just experienced passed. Curious Sasuke used his temporary respite to examine his shoulders. They were unpierced. '_Did I just turn back time?'_

Sasuke didn't have long to think about what had transpired however as Haku attacked once more, this time coming from above. Sasuke was able to dodge the initial attack but not Haku's follow up. Sasuke felt the senbon pierce his chest, dangerously close to his heart. The tremendous strain again befell Sasuke's left eye as time seemed to reverse its flow once more. The senbon retreated from Sasuke's chest, back to Haku's hand. From there time resumed its normal flow, and Sasuke had to turn his body to the side to avoid the senbon hitting him a second time. Haku's eyes widened in surprise as Sasuke's foot lashed out and caught him in the chest.

Sasuke smirked at the surprised look on Haku's face but could also feel his chakra level drop dramatically. Whatever the strange jutsu he had just discovered was, one thing was clear. It used a lot of chakra. As it was Sasuke had just enough to keep his sharingan active for a few more minutes. He knew he'd have to end this fight soon. Grabbing another kunai from its holster Sasuke stood ready for Haku's next attack. One way or another it would be his last.

Haku burst from his mirrors, senbon needles held between his fingers like claws. Sasuke leapt to intercept Haku and a sharp pain erupted from his chest as Haku buried the needles in him. The two of them fell to the floor with Haku on top of Sasuke. The Yuki clan member looked down at him with pity in his eyes.

Haku released the senbon in Sasuke's chest and picked a needle off the ground. "Tell your friend I'm sorry it came to this." As Haku stabbed for Sasuke's throat, Sasuke's hand shot up and caught the needle in his palm.

"Tell him yourself." Sasuke growled, plunging the kunai into Haku's throat. Blood poured onto Sasuke's face as he rolled Haku off of him. The two lay next to each other, staring into one another's eyes. Haku's eyes went dull and lifeless as his life's blood flowed freely from his wounded neck and bubbled from his mouth. Sasuke looked into Haku's eyes and didn't see accusation, anger, fear, or even sadness. All he saw in those now lifeless eyes was acceptance. Around them the ice mirrors that had set the boundaries of their battle had started to melt and shatter. Haku Yuki was dead.

Sasuke forced himself to his feet and looked down at his fallen foe. The ninja who had claimed the life of his best friend. The boy who was only a little older than himself. The person he had just killed. A sudden impulse compelled Sasuke to kneel down and close Haku's eyes. Afterwards a shiver crawled up Sasuke's spine and he forced himself to stand up walk away. He contemplated going to help Kakashi deal with Zabuza but instead found himself walking over to where Sakura had carried Naruto. His fight was over, it was time to mourn.

* * *

'_Is this hell?' Naruto asked himself when he opened his eyes again. Naruto expected to find himself among the clouds with pearly white gates before him. Maybe an old guy with a beard to let him in. He was most certainly not expecting to wake up in a dark corridor with a bunch of leaky pipes overhead, all heading to a gigantic rusted iron gate. As he got closer to the gate Naruto could see that it was closed with a sheet of paper that had 'Seal' written on it. Behind the gate Naruto could only see darkness and the faintest of silhouettes. Whatever was back there was big. Really, fucking, big._

_Naruto was about to turn around and leave when he felt a blast of warm air wash over him. Naruto froze where he stood as he heard loud, steady breaths directly behind him._

"_**So my jailor finally decides to pay me a visit**__.__** Such a pathetic host they sealed me into.**__" A deep, throaty, feral voice said. Slowly Naruto turned around and found himself face to face with the monstrous demon that had plagued his village for generations. The Nine-Tailed Fox. The monster Fox was on the other side of the gate, staring down at him with hateful red eyes, its fangs bared, and each of its colossal nine tails twitching in irritation. __**"What's the matter? Fox got your tongue?"**_

"_What's going on?" Naruto finally asked, "I thought I was dead."_

"_**Close, but not quite." **__The fox replied, __**"It's only thanks to my chakra that you're still alive."**_

"_Well in that case thank you." Naruto said once he realized what fox had said. _

_The Fox scoffed, __**"Thank that blasted Fourth Hokage of yours. He's the one who put me inside of your worthless carcass." **__With that the fox had started to walk away from the cage door._

_Naruto frowned, "Why are you so angry?" Naruto flinched and fell back as the Nine-Tails spun around and slammed itself against the cage, reaching a giant claw for Naruto. Naruto was just able to get beyond the reach of the massive limb before it could scoop him up._

"_**You've not earned the right to ask me anything?" **__The Fox growled, __**"A small, pathetic, little weakling like you understands nothing! Now go! Leave me to my prison."**__ Not needing to be told twice, Naruto turned and fled from the colossal Fox. But not without wondering why his "captive" had reacted so aggressively._

* * *

Zabuza stared in disbelief as Kakashi held his fabled Raikiri in his hand. Kakashi was right, he was going to die here and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Not with these damned dogs holding in place. Zabuza could only watch as Kakashi finished gathering his chakra and held the lightning covered hand to his side.

"Good bye Zabuza." Kakashi said before he charged forward, hand cocked back ready to impale him.

'_Move you fool! You can't let yourself die here you need to move!' _The thought echoed through Zabuza's mind even though he knew it was useless. He couldn't move, not without sacrificing several large chunks of his flesh to Kakashi's hounds. Even if he did that however, he would be in no fit condition to continue fight Kakashi after. "You have to know when you're beaten." Zabuza muttered to himself as he looked over to where Haku had been fighting Kakashi's genin. What he saw, or rather didn't see surprised him. Haku's ice mirrors were melting as the boy himself lay unmoving on the ground.

A roar of anger escaped Zabuza's mouth as the Kiri ninja ripped his arms free of Kakashi's mutts, tearing out chunks of meat, and reached for his sword. Without a moment to lose Zabuza held the swords flat between himself and Kakashi like a shield. The sword barely slowed Kakashi's attack as his lightning charged fist punched through the thick iron of the sword, but it was enough. Zabuza used a substitution jutsu to replace himself with a nearby crate, and before anyone knew it, Zabuza was kneeling next to his fallen apprentice. As Zabuza looked down at Haku's corpse, a memory came unbidden to his mind.

* * *

_Zabuza looked down at the tiny figure huddled over on the bridge. The orphaned boy was no older than nine or ten and was clearly starving and malnourished. The jonin wondered if he should do the child of favor and end his suffering. Despite that the boy smiled when he looked up at him._

"_You have the same eyes as me." He said. For some reason that struck a chord in Zabuza's heart._

"_Come with me." Zabuza said holding out his hand. The child took it without hesitation. "Tell me your name child."_

"_I'm Haku Yuki."_

_Zabuza recognized the clan name as the one with the Ice Release Bloodline. The child was likely orphaned from the Mizukage's order to exterminate all those with powerful bloodlines from Kirigakure. Underneath his bandages Zabuza smiled, thrilled to have such a powerful bloodline within his reach. _

_Years passed and Zabuza found himself staring down upon Kirigakure, his plan having failed. He'd managed to kill the Mizukage Yagura, the jinchuriki of the Three-Tailed Turtle, but as it turned out his followers were actually loyal to him, not just afraid of him as he had assumed. He'd barely managed to escape from the village and yet despite the ANBU who were definitely giving him chase, he had to get one last look at his home._ _Haku, now his apprentice stood next to him looking not at the village, but at him. _

"_We're leaving this place Haku. But one day we shall return and take control as we should've today. I will have need of you for the foreseeable future, but I don't need you for comfort or encouragement. What I need from you is…"_

"_I understand Lord Zabuza." Haku interrupted him, smiling as he always did around him. "I'm your tool, a weapon to used and disposed of when necessary."_

_Zabuza looked down at the child, "Good boy." He said before turning his back on Kirigakure. _

* * *

Zabuza came back to himself when he felt cold metal touch the back of his neck. Zabuza sighed as he reached out with his bloody hand and gently brushed Haku's cooling skin.

"Kakashi let me ask you something." Zabuza said as he rose to his feet. "We ninja are expected to murder our own emotions and become nothing but weapons for our villages and masters correct?"

"We are." Kakashi answered, allowing Zabuza to turn and face him.

"Then why do I feel sorrow for the loss of my student?"

"Because no matter how hard we try to smother our feelings, in the end we are all still just human."

"Human huh. Not demons."

"So now tell me something Zabuza. What happens now?"

A new voice answered that question. "What happens now is that everyone on this bridge will die." Both Zabuza and Kakashi turned to the source of the new voice to see a short, ugly, hairy man in a suit, with a cane in one hand and cast over his other arm, standing in front of a small army of goons. "After you guys spent all of your energy fighting each other, you should be easy pickings for my men here."

"Are you betraying me Gato?" Zabuza asked. "Because if you are you should know that you're the one who will die on this bridge."

"Oooh big talk from the little demon baby." Gato mocked before turning to his men. "Whoever brings me his head along with the fucker's who broke my arm will be making double tonight." The men behind him all cheered.

"Well Kakashi, it looks like we have no more quarrel." Zabuza said as he walked toward his damaged sword.

"Yeah." Was Kakashi's simple response.

"You should see to your children." Zabuza stated as he picked his sword off of the ground, only half of it came up. "I think Haku may have injured one of them."

"What about you?"

"I believe it's time for Gato to learn his place in the world."

* * *

Gato watched bemused as Zabuza approached him and his thugs with only half of his originally gigantic sword in his hand. "What are you going to do with that?" one of his men taunted while another shouted, "How exactly to plan to fight all of us with a broken sword?"

Zabuza just looked at his broken blade, "I wouldn't worry about that if I were you." Gato tilted his head forward and his several of his men charged forward, eager for that double pay. Zabuza stood still as his men converged on him. In a flash Zabuza's half sword struck, opening one man from groin to chest. Gato watched, terror growing as Zabuza struck down the other men who had charged forward just as easily as the first. Gato's terror only increased as he noticed Zabuza's sword seemingly repair itself with each and every cut it made. "I see plenty of replacement iron in front of me." Zabuza declared as he made a few hand gestures.

"Kill him!" Gato said, jabbing his cane forward. With a roar all of his men charged, each and every one of them ignoring the sudden fog that had come over the bridge. Gato stood in place as the battle cries of his men very quickly became screams of terror. Within seconds however it was all over and the fog cleared revealing Zabuza standing amidst bloody, severed corpses, his sword whole once again. Now for the first time Gato saw Zabuza for what he truly was. A bloody demon, hidden in mist. Gato immediately made the first wise choice he'd made in his entire life. He ran like hell.

Gato sprinted as fast as his short legs could carry him. Daring a glance over his shoulder he saw that Zabuza hadn't moved from where he stood. When Gato looked a head he saw a large group of people heading towards the bridge. The short man slid to a stop once he realized it was an angry mob of the villagers he'd been plaguing for years.

"No, no, no." Gato cried, "It can't end like this."

"And how would you like it to end?" Zabuza voice whispered in his ear. Gato turned around just in time to see Zabuza lift his massive sword. Gato only had time to blink once before the giant slab of metal cut him in two from shoulder to hip.

* * *

The first thing Naruto heard when he came back to himself was Sakura's sobs. The first thing he felt when feeling came back to him was Sakura's head against his chest, followed immediately by a dull throbbing pain in his throat. The first thing Naruto saw when he opened his eyes a few minutes later was his two teammates looking down at him with unbelieving eyes. The first thing he said was, "Did we win?"

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out as she hugged the blonde. Naruto was speechless as he looked around and found himself surrounded by the entire village. "We thought you were dead." Sakura sobbed before, out of nowhere, she stopped hugging him and hit him really hard on top of his head. "You idiot! What were you thinking?"

Naruto looked to Sasuke or Kakashi for help but Sasuke just turned his back to him, to hide a smile, and Kakashi just pulled out his book. Finding no help in either of them Naruto turned back to Sakura who was busy wiping the tears from her face.

"I just wanted to protect you guys." Naruto said before he remembered. Naruto jerked his head around. "Where's Zabuza and the masked kid." The change in the mood around them was palpable.

"After Haku almost killed you," Sakura started only to be interrupted.

"I killed Haku." Sasuke said turning around. "I thought he'd taken your life, so I took his." There was a long silence as Naruto looked up at his friend, who seemed to be ashamed that he killed someone. He wouldn't meet Naruto's eyes. "I'm glad you're ok Naruto."

Naruto smiled, "Glad I was able to get here in time." Despite everything the Uchiha smiled. "And what about Zabuza?"

This time it was Kakashi who responded, "During the battle Gato showed up and betrayed Zabuza. Zabuza killed him and fled with Haku's body. Said he would give him a proper burial."

"So Zabuza's still out there somewhere?"

"Yes but I wouldn't worry about having to fight him a third time. Once his contract with Gato was terminated he ceased being our enemy."

"I wonder where he went." Sakura said to no one in particular.

* * *

Mei Terumi yawned rather loudly as she sat in her office, ruefully looking at the mountain of paperwork in front of her. She was just about to get down to business when a knock came at her door.

"Lady Mizukage, may I please enter?" a male voice called from the other side.

"Come on in Ao." The Fifth Mizukage said, picking up a piece of paper to look busy. The door swung open to reveal Mei's ANBU captain Ao, wearing his green haori over his striped grey uniform. His right eye was covered by an eyepatch, but not to cover up the fact that he didn't have a right eye like many assumed but rather to hide the Byakugan eye that he had acquired while on a mission a long time ago. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"I've just received reports from my men that they've spotted an intruder near the village."

"Have they captured or killed him or her?" Mei asked.

"They dared not approach this one."

"Why not?" Only really half listening to her captain.

"It's Zabuza Momochi."

Immediately Mei was on her feet and heading out the door. "He's back? How many does he have with him?"

"Just him Ma'am." Ao responded following her down the hall.

"Where was he sighted?"

"Approaching the main gate of the Village."

"Bring me Chojuro." The Mizukage ordered.

"I'll see if I can find him. Damn bastard can be difficult to find he's so small." Mei stopped on the spot and Ao had to stop to or else he'd run into her.

"What was that about me having difficulty finding a husband?" Mei asked her voice low and threatening.

"What…" Was all Ao was able to get out of his mouth before Mei spun around and knocked him through a wall. "Every damn time I open my mouth." The ANBU captain grumbled as Mei stormed off.

A few minutes later Mei was walking through the streets of Kirigakure with one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist, Chojuro, to her left and a bruised Ao to her right. Off in the distance they saw Zabuza Momochi approaching them his giant sword in hand.

"So I take it you became the Mizukage then Mei?" Zabuza asked, stopping a few yards away from them.

"I have Zabuza, and I must admit I wasn't expecting you to return." Mei responded. "At least not without a small army."

"I haven't." Zabuza stated, "This is just a shadow clone, something I learned in my travels. I've come to deliver you something."

"Oh what's that?" Mei asked, readying herself for an attack.

"This." Zabuza stated while plunging his sword, the Kubikiribocho, into the ground by his feet. "I hereby surrender my place as a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist and my blade the Kubikiribocho." And just like that the shadow clone dispersed.

* * *

Zabuza sighed as he finished filling Haku's grave with dirt. He hoped that he would like it here as he looked over the same sight he had when he had left the village years before. Kirigakure lay before him. As he looked the memories of the clone he sent to the village came back to him. His tasks completed Zabuza looked at the unmarked grave of his student, no that wasn't right, his friend, still no, of his son, yeah that felt right.

"Good bye Haku." Zabuza said, "Thank you for everything." And with that Zabuza turned away from his home for the last time.

* * *

_The mission to protect Tazuna the Bridge Builder is a success. What new challenges await Naruto and his team. Next Time: The Next Level_

* * *

**Author's Note: So yeah that was fun. And with that the Land of Waves arc finally comes to a close. God feels like I've been working on this forever. Anyway I hope you liked this chapter. Hopefully I can finish the next one soon. Just a heads up prepare to see some red hair. Anyway please Read and enjoy. Oh and I hoped you all liked what I did for Sasuke's Mangekyo powers. Just kinda hit me while playing Prince of Persia.**


	17. The Next Level

**AN: Please excuse the length of this chapter. I wanted to do one of a proper length but couldn't think of how to smoothly transition from Bridge to Chunin Exams so please excuse the filler. That being said I actually do like quite a few things in this chapter so not a total waste of time. anywho I promise the next one will be up to snuff. as always please enjoy. **

* * *

Sasuke awoke with a start and in a cold sweat. Taking deep breaths he forced himself to calm down before he got out of his bed and headed over to the nearest sink. Splashing some water on his face Sasuke took a moment to look at his reflection in the mirror Sasuke noted the bags under his bloodshot eyes, his normally pale skin had even less color than normal, his hair was a complete mess, though judging by a few comments he overheard Naruto saying that wasn't anything new.

"My hair does not look like a chicken's ass." He muttered as he splashed more water onto his face. Taking another look, Sasuke was forced to add, "Though I do look like hell."

With a wary sigh Sasuke looked out the window and saw that the sun hadn't even risen yet. Scowling, Sasuke returned his attention to the mirror, with his Sharingan activated. "These awoke when my family and clan was killed" He focused his chakra to his eyes and willed them to change. He watched as the three tomoe that circled his pupil stretched into three long, intercepting ovals, turning his eyes into scarlet stars. "And these awoke when I thought that Naruto had been killed. Why does the sharingan seem to get stronger whenever I lose something I care about?"

Sasuke stared at his reflection, at his Mangekyo Sharingan. They looked so different from his brother's three pronged shuriken. Taking a deep breath Sasuke focused on the mirror in front of him. With his sharingan he memorized every little detail he could about it. Once he was sure that he'd had it all memorized, Sasuke punched the mirror. He felt the reflective glass crunch under his fist as cracks spread across the plane. Immediately Sasuke focused his chakra to his left eye and tried to force time to reverse itself like it had on the bridge just a short month ago. Like then Sasuke felt a great strain on his left eye as he watched the cracks retreat back under his fist. When Sasuke removed the hand from the mirror he was pleased to note that the mirror appeared just as it had before he punched it. The pain behind his eye lessened as he released time from his hold, and raised his hand to gently massage the sore organ.

"What's the catch?" Sasuke found himself asking, "There's got to be a catch besides a sore eye ball." Sasuke wished that he could look up the info he needed at Konoha's great library, but the Uchiha Clan had been very particular about what info about their clan was made available for the general public, chief among them the sharingan. And sadly Itachi seemed to take it upon himself to burn the archives kept within the Uchiha Compound itself so no dice there. That left just one person in the whole village he could turn to.

"Kakashi." Sasuke whispered as he let his eyes shift back to their normal sharingan.

* * *

"What do you mean we won't be doing any missions for a while?" Naruto loudly demanded once Kakashi had told the group of genin that they would be taking it easy for a bit. "Come on I've been itching for a new mission ever since we left the Wave Country!"

"Funny, I was looking forward to some relaxation." Sakura chuckled to Sasuke as Naruto got into a heated argument with Kakashi, well heated on Naruto's half. Kakashi as usual was thumbing through his book, calmly shooting down all Naruto's hopes. Sakura frowned slightly when Sasuke made zero effort to even acknowledge she had said something. "Are you ok Sasuke? You've been acting odd ever since we got back."

This time Sasuke looked at her, his eyelids half closed over his eyes. "I'm fine, just haven't been sleeping well."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Sasuke shook his head, "Sorry Sakura, but I don't think you'll be able to help."

"Then what about Naruto, or Kakashi-Sensei?" Sakura offered, slightly hurt that her crush didn't think she'd be of any help.

"I was actually going to talk to Kakashi later today." Sasuke admitted.

"That's good." Sakura said just as Naruto and Kakashi finished their own conversation.

"Alright then Kakashi-Sensei, if we aren't going to be doing any missions, then what are we going to be doing?"

"I'm sorry to say that I've neglected your guys' training as of late." Kakashi started, "So for the next two weeks I've decided to devote myself to improving your skillsets and teamwork. Our little mission to the Wave Country was a bit of a wake-up call for me I'm afraid. I won't be able to be by your guys' sides all the time and need to know that you can take of yourselves." With that Kakashi made two shadow clones. "Now then Sasuke, Naruto, each of you go off with a clone and start your training. Sakura you'll stay here with me." All three of his students nodded and Sasuke and Naruto both departed with their clone teachers. Leaving Sakura alone with the real Kakashi.

"What are we going to be doing sensei?" Sakura asked, eager to learn some more. "Are we going to keep working on my genjutsu?"

"No I've decided to spend some time working on your taijutsu skills." Kakashi stated while sliding into his starting stance. "So show me what you've got."

* * *

"You looked like you wanted to speak to me about something Sasuke." Kakashi stated once they arrived at their training spot. "I'm all ears."

Sasuke nodded before taking a deep breath. "Kakashi I need you to be honest with me. How much do you know about the sharingan?"

Kakashi shrugged, "No more than you I imagine. It gives me greater perception, and enables me to copy my enemy's movements and jutsu. It's handy for getting off a quick genjutsu, and I have a feeling this is exclusive to me, takes a great toll on my chakra reserves. Why do you ask?"

Sasuke frowned at Kakashi's basic answer, "That's all you know about it? Nothing about advance uses of the Sharingan?"

Kakashi shrugged, "I'm sorry Sasuke, but the Uchiha weren't exactly keen on teaching an outsider the ins and outs of their most heavily guarded secrets, even me." Kakashi noticed Sasuke's tired visage suddenly grow even more tired. "What's wrong Sasuke?"

"Back on the bridge, when I was fighting Haku. Something happened to me when I thought Naruto had died." Sasuke started allowing his eyes to shift to their mangekyo sharingan form. Kakashi stared at the strange eyes. "My sharingan evolved to their next stage."

"And you thought maybe I knew something about it." Kakashi supplied, "I'm sorry Sasuke but everything I know about the sharingan is either from hearsay, legends, and my own experiments with mine."

"I understand." Sasuke said solemnly.

"Was there something else you wished to discuss?"

Sasuke sighed, "I haven't been sleeping well lately."

"Nightmares about your first kill?" Kakashi ventured a guess. The look on Sasuke's face told him he'd been right.

"Every time I close my eyes I see Haku's face, smeared in his own blood." Sasuke stated, "In my sleep I relive the moment I stabbed him in the throat over and over again. Sometimes I dream that I'm the one who killed my clan, each of them a stab to the throat like him."

"There's an old saying, 'You'll always remember your first kill'. Tell me something Sasuke, are you going to forget Haku?" Sasuke shook his head. "And you shouldn't, you also shouldn't forget how killing him made you feel. Judging by what you're telling me, you don't like the feeling of taking someone's life correct?" Sasuke nodded, "That's good, but you also have to come to terms with the fact that as a shinobi, you are expected to kill if you have to. Doesn't mean you have to enjoy it."

"Who was your first?"

Kakashi paused, "I never learned his name, he was an Iwa shinobi during the Third Shinobi War. He killed my best friend and I killed him in retaliation. Something else we have in common eh. I remember feeling hollow afterwards though, unlike Naruto my friend didn't wake up."

"I'm sorry. Who was he?"

Kakashi sighed, "Obito Uchiha, the man who gave me my sharingan."

* * *

"So Naruto before we begin why don't you show me what Asuma taught you about Wind jutsu." Kakashi said while pointing at nearby tree. "Take that tree down with your wind claws."

Naruto nodded before he cast the jutsu. He was pleased to see his claws were perfectly straight with no jaggedness to them. They also extended a full six inches past his fingertips. With his fingers now a series of razor sharp wind blades Naruto slashed at the small tree and smiled as the tree offered the resistance of warm butter.

"Very good." Kakashi praised as the tree toppled over. "Asuma taught you well."

"Oh and he had a message he wanted me to give you." Naruto smile widened.

"And what would that be?"

"Next time train your own damn student." Behind his mask Kakashi smiled.

"Yeah that sounds about right."

"Speaking of which, what are you going to be teaching me now? A new mega powerful wind jutsu?"

"Actually I was gonna start teaching you about genjutsu." Kakashi corrected "Or in your case how to break them." Kakashi felt the disappointed look on Naruto's face was priceless. "There are two ways of breaking an opponent's genjutsu should you ever find yourself ensnared by one. The first method is to cause yourself physical pain. This will snap you out of the illusion but as you can imagine can be rather counterproductive."

"And the second way?" Naruto asked.

"To overwhelm the enemy's chakra with your own." Kakashi stated. "Now I know any explanation I give will likely go over your head." Kakashi was rather amused by the bulging vein on Naruto's temple, "So I'll have you learn how in your preferred method." Kakashi lifted his forehead protector away from his sharingan. "Through trial and error."

Naruto had enough time for a single curse before the genjutsu took him.

* * *

"Lord Hokage will see you now."

"Well it's about bloody time." Senkai muttered as she stood up. Her three chunin bodyguards all rose with her and made to enter the Hokage's office.

"Just with you ma'am." The Konoha chunin informed her, "Your escort will have to wait out here." Senkai ran her fingers through her red hair before she turned to her guards, all of whom possessed the same color of hair.

"Well you heard the man." She said casually, "Go on back to the hotel I won't be long." The three chunin all bowed before they departed. "The whole, entire clan to pick from and he sends me with those sticks in the mud." Senkai lamented to chunin who was holding the door for her, "Thank you."

Once inside Senkai looked around the office with an inquisitive eye. Everything was neat and in their proper places, completely the opposite of her own office back home. The Third Hokage sat behind a desk stacked with paperwork, a wizened, grandfatherly smile on his face.

"Sorry for making you wait for so long." He apologized, "I'm Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage of Konoha. To what do I owe the pleasure miss…?"

"Senkai Uzumaki. I'm here to discuss Uzushio's participation in the upcoming Chunin Exams."

* * *

_The Chunin Exams approach and Kakashi must get his students ready for them as genin from other villages all flock to Konoha. Next Time: Strangers in a Foreign Land._

* * *

**AN: Shameless self promotion oncoming please ignore if uninterested. I've started something of a new series call Reincarnation Cycle. In it I'll be writing short stories, about 10 or so chapters each, about the incarnations of Indra and Asura prior to Hashirama and Madara. Feel free to check it out, first chapter's already up. Please R&amp;R.**


	18. Strangers in a Foreign Land

Kakashi stood patiently as he and about a dozen other Jonin instructors waited for the Third Hokage to call them forward. Next to him stood Asuma Sarutobi, and Kurenai Yuhi. The jonin who taught the other rookie genin squads, Team 8 and Team 10.

"I believe that's everyone who's coming Lord Hokage." Genma announced to the older man sitting behind his desk.

"Very well let us begin." The Hokage said, loudly so the room could hear him. "As you all know, the Chunin Exams held within Konoha will be starting within a few days. Already several teams of genin from other villages have arrived in the village. So far we've received three teams from Suna, two from Kumo, five from Ame, four from Kusa, one team from the newly founded Oto," Kakashi noticed the Hokage smile, "and one team from Uzushio."

"But Uzushio was destroyed during the Second Shinobi War." One of the jonin within the room stated. "The Uzumaki clan scattered throughout the world."

"Yes they were." The Hokage agreed, "But the Uzumaki are if nothing else resilient. And in their resilience have regathered their scattered clan and founded their village anew. I have spoken with the head of their village, Senkai Uzumaki, and I believe we have rekindled our old alliance with them. She says that she wishes to reintroduce her village to the world through these exams."

Kakashi nodded at the news. '_It's good that Uzushio has come back into the fold. They were our staunchest and strongest allies' _Kakashi recalled that it had taken the combined forces of Iwa, Kiri and Kumo to bring down Uzushio, and even then it had been a near thing. '_I wonder how Naruto will take the news.'_

"Now then, as for our own genin. Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma please step forward." The Hokage's command roused Kakashi from his thoughts and he and his fellows stepped forward in unison. "As the Jonin instructors for this year's rookie teams, do you think they are ready for Chunin Exams?"

'_For the past two weeks I've been prepping them for something just like this. Naruto while having no talent in casting a genjutsu has proven quite adept at breaking them, Sakura's taijutsu skills have also improved, and Sasuke is as ever a prodigy.' _Kakashi thought as the Hokage went over the requirements for taking the exams. When he finished he turned to Kakashi.

The silver haired jonin stepped forward. "I Kakashi Hatake, leader of Team 7, recommend Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki for the chunin exams."

* * *

Sasuke leaned against the railing of the bridge patiently as his two teammates paced back and forth, each of them muttering their own curses as Kakashi was late, again, just like literally every single time they've had to meet with him. '_Honestly you'd think they would've caught on to the routine by now.' _Sasuke thought just as Kakashi appeared on the bridge.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late but I got lost on the road of life." Was his newest excuse as he walked up to them and held out three sheets of paper. "So to make it up to all of you, I took the liberty of signing you guys up for the Chunin Exams."

Sasuke widened his eyes in surprise just as both Naruto and Sakura had their own, personalized rants cut short. For a moment the only sound anyone could hear was the rush of the wind and the stirring of the water under the bridge. Naruto, as usual, was the first to break the silence.

"Thank you so much!" he shouted, rushing up to hug the silver haired jonin. "You're the best Kakashi-Sensei!" Kakashi chuckled as Naruto snatched one of the sheets of paper out of his hand and immediately started reading it over, all the while practically singing to himself how he was going to dominate the exams and secure his path to the title of Hokage.

Sasuke found himself smiling as well as he took his own sheet from Kakashi. '_Chunin Exams huh. Should provide me with some challenging fights.'_ Only Sakura seemed to be looking doubtful about their participation.

"Uh sensei?" she started, "Are you sure we're ready for this?"

Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder. "Sakura, if I wasn't sure of all of your guys' ability to succeed I wouldn't of recommended you. Trust me, you guys are ready." Sasuke noted that even with Kakashi's assurance, Sakura didn't seem entirely convinced. "However if you don't feel that you're up to it, there's no shame in waiting until you think you're ready. I won't lie to you, these exams are dangerous."

"Don't worry Sakura, as long as we all stick together there's no way we can possibly fail." Naruto added his own confidence to the mix, "I mean we saved an entire country for crying out loud."

Sakura gave a small nod in agreement, Sasuke was sure he still saw doubt in her eyes, but also a spark of determination.

"The Exams will begin five days from now." Kakashi explained, "If you wish to participate, bring your signed application forms to room 301 of the academy at 3:00 PM. It would be wise if you guys used that time to brush up on wherever you find your skills to be lacking."

"Won't you be helping us train for the exams Kakashi?" Sasuke asked.

"Sorry but rules forbid Jonin instructors from assisting their genin once the recommendation is made." Kakashi answered, "As such it will be up to you to make sure you're ready for whatever these exams throw at you from here on out." With that Kakashi disappeared from their sight. The three genin all looked at each other for a silent moment.

"We should meet up tomorrow and start training for these exams." Sasuke said, "Get plenty of rest tonight. We're going to need it."

"Well in that case I'm going to Ichiraku's for some ramen with Ayame." Naruto replied, "Anyone want to come with?"

"No thanks." Sakura said while Sasuke responded, "I'm good."

Naruto shoulders dropped. "I swear trying to get you guys to go to Ichiraku's with me is like trying to pull a giant boulder up a mountain with my teeth." He muttered as he skulked away.

* * *

Karin Uzumaki's mouth hung wide open as she wondered the streets of Konoha with her teammates, Kado and Torren following closely behind her. Kado wore a dark green shirt and light blue pants. His long scarlet hair was pulled into a ponytail and wore his Uzushio headband tied around his right arm. Torren wore a long sleeved grey shirt with their clan symbol printed on both shoulders and black pants, his own red hair was kept short and trimmed and he wore his Uzushio band proudly on his brow. Karin wore a tan vest over a light purple shirt and black shorts, her light red hair hung freely to her shoulders and like Torren she wore her Uzushio headband on her brow.

"Have you ever seen a place this big?" Karin asked her teammates.

"Not really." Torren admitted, "But this is the first time any of us have been to one of the big five villages. Presumably Suna, Iwa, Kiri, and Kumo are just as big."

"My father said Kiri was the largest village he'd ever seen." Kado supplied. "Don't know if he'd ever been here at Konoha but from what he says he got around a lot as a kid."

"She didn't ask if your father had seen any place bigger, she asked you ya moron." Torren scolded.

"It's kind of a stupid question." Kado said. "We've only left Uzushio together and have therefore all seen the same places. Karin should know better."

"I was being rhetorical you idiots." Karin told the two boys, pushing her glasses back up.

"I wonder what Lord Arashikage would think of this place." Torren said trying to ease some tension.

Kado chuckled, "You know he hates it when you call him that."

"He hates it when anyone calls him that." Karin corrected, "Which is of course why we all do it."

The three Uzumaki genin all laughed as they imagined the man in question's sour face at being called his unwanted nickname. Although he wasn't the true leader of the Uzumaki Clan or their recently founded village, Lady Senkai had made it clear multiple times that she had wanted the man to be the leader of both. As such she, and the rest of the village, had taken to calling him Lord Arashikage, The Storm Shadow, and he hated it.

"Anyway, I think I heard Kurma-Sensei say that Lord Arashikage, was actually from Konoha." Kado interjected between laughs.

"If so then that would make a trip here a sort of homecoming for him wouldn't it?" Torren put in.

"Would certainly explain why he was so disappointed Lady Senkai wouldn't allow him to come." Karin responded, her smile turning thoughtful. '_If this is his home village then could that mean there are more Uzumaki here too? What if we found them and brought them back to Uzushio with us?' _ These thoughts distracted Karin enough where she didn't hear Kado warn her as she bumped into someone. "Oh my, I'm so sorry." She blurted out, her cheeks becoming as red as her hair.

When she looked up to see who she had bumped into, she found herself looking at a tall boy in a full black body suit, with purple markings on his face, and a strange black hat that had the Suna Gourd forehead protected sewn onto it. On his back was something wrapped in so many bandages, Karin thought it might be a mummy. Next to him was a blonde girl in a light purple dress, with her hair pulled into four ponytails, her Suna headband tied around her neck, and a gigantic fan strapped to her back.

"Hey Temari would you get a look at this." The boy said, glaring at the three Uzumaki genin, "A trio of brats who need to be taught some manners."

* * *

Ayame and Naruto happily slurped at their ramen as their mountain of used bowls just grew larger and larger. Behind the counter Teuchi and his daughter smiled approvingly at the two as they prepared their next bowl.

"So I hear Kakashi signed you guys up for the Chunin Exams." Ayame said as she pushed away her finished bowl and waited for the next one.

"Yep." Naruto answered, doing the same. "And just you watch I'm gonna win the whole thing and become a chunin." Ayame smiled at the blonde's declaration as their next bowls of ramen were set before them. "Hey Ayame, what were the Chunin Exams like when you guys took them?"

"We actually took them in Kiri, so I imagine it was a bit different than how it is here." Ayame started, "Hokori and I didn't advance that time, we received field promotions not too long afterwards actually, but Arashi shined like a fucking star in those exams. I remember during the final rounds for the exams his opponent flooded the arena they used, and Arashi, I shit you not, laughed as he did this one jutsu that turned the entire thing into a whirlpool. With the entire arena now a swirling vortex, Arashi would dive under the water, let the current take him and pop out of the water in random places to surprise his foe. Poor bastard never knew what hit her." Ayame paused a moment to eat some of her noodles, "That was actually where he got his nickname, The Maelstrom of Konoha."

"How come I don't remember this?" Naruto asked, raking through his brain for the foggiest recollection of these events.

"You were like two years old Naruto." Ayame told him. "Arashi had to leave you with the Hokage whenever he had to leave the village for a mission."

The two were silent for a moment as they both started on their fresh bowls. "So is there anything you can tell me about the Exams to give me an edge?"

Ayame smiled, "Oh yeah I could tell you loads of things about the Exams that would make the first two stages child's play for you." She said nothing else as she slurped up more noodles. Naruto waited patiently for about thirty seconds or so for her to continue.

"Well?" he prodded.

Ayame looked at him confused, "Well what?"

"Aren't you gonna tell me about the exams?"

"Oh… Nope."

"But you just said you would." Naruto pointed an accusing finger at her.

"No I said I _could _tell you all about the exams." Ayame said, stressing the word could. "I never once said that I would." Naruto glared at Ayame as the one eyed woman casually finished the bowl in front of her. When she noticed the glare she laughed, "What's with the look? You'd best go and prepare yourself for the exams. Trust me, those five days will sneak past you before you know it and you'll find yourself before the very gates of Hell." Naruto's lips pouted as he reached for his wallet, "Oh don't worry about it. I'll cover you this time."

Naruto's face softened as he nodded his thanks. As the young blonde departed, Ayame reached for her own wallet and pulled out enough money for the rather large bill the two of them accrued and a generous tip.

* * *

Sakura had been standing completely still for about fifteen minutes before she had finally worked up her courage. Swallowing her apprehension, the pink haired girl reached forward and knocked on the door in front of her. Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for the door to open up.

"Huh Sakura? What is it?" Sasuke asked once he opened the door.

"Hey Sasuke. Can I talk to you for a bit?" Sakura asked.

"Uh sure. Come inside." Sasuke stepped aside to allow her into his home. Sakura reddened at Sasuke's offer but steeled herself and stepped inside the Uchiha's home.

'_Huh, if Ino were seeing this she'd have a heart attack.' _Sakura thought with a small smile. She was surprised to see how spartan Sasuke's home was. He had very few amenities, just a single picture of his mother and father sat on a coffee table.

"Go ahead and take the seat." Sasuke said gesturing to the single chair in the room, "I'll be right back." Sakura say down on the chair as Sasuke left the room, only to return a few moments later with another chair in one hand, and two glasses of water in the other. He set the chair down across from her and sat on it as he offered her one of the glasses. "So what did you want to talk about?"

Sakura's heart thundered as she tried to clear her throat. She downed the water Sasuke had provided before speaking. "Sasuke," she started, "Do you think I'm ready for the Chunin Exams?"

Sasuke blinked once in surprise. "Why are you asking me?"

"Because I know Naruto would just say that I am, and he'd believe it to, but he always believes that we can do anything, so it's not exactly the most honest of opinions. And I know Kakashi said that he wouldn't recommend us if he didn't think…"

"Sorry," Sasuke interrupted, "I didn't mean why you aren't asking the others. I meant, why you are asking anyone at all?" Sakura gave the Uchiha a confused look. "Sakura, nobody knows what you are capable of more than yourself. You shouldn't be asking other people if they think you're ready, you should be asking yourself."

Sakura was silent for a moment as she considered what Sasuke said. "I'm not sure if I'm ready for these exams." She finally admitted.

Sasuke nodded before taking a sip of his water. "Well the exams don't start for another five days. We'll spend the time training and if by the end of the fourth day you're still not sure of yourself, don't take the exams."

Sakura nodded as she stood from her chair. Sasuke stood with her and guided her to the door. Once she was outside Sakura turned around as was closing the door. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke paused, "Yeah?"

"You never answered my question." She said, "Do you think I'm ready for the exams?"

Sasuke smiled, "Yes, yes I do." And with that he closed the door.

* * *

Naruto strolled down the streets of Konoha, happily patting his full belly. As he walked a loud crash met his ears. Shortly afterwards a young man, about his age with red hair, slammed through a wooden fence and into the wall in front of him.

"Are you alright?" Naruto asked as he rushed over to help the boy up. He wore a dark green shirt and light blue pants and had his long red hair tied in a ponytail. Naruto didn't recognized the symbol on his headband tied around his arm but thought that it was similar to his clan's symbol. The red head was up on his feet in an instant and looked about ready to charge back where he just came from. The boy spared a glance at Naruto and upon seeing his Konoha headband, smirked.

"I honestly hope you're reinforcements." He said.

"Huh?" Naruto was about to ask what he meant but the redhead grabbed him by his wrist and pulled him with him.

"Come on." The red haired boy said, "These two are tougher than we thought."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked just as a small battle came into view. Two more redheaded genin, one boy and one girl, were facing off between a blonde girl with a giant fan and another boy in black with a large wooden puppet. "Oh." Acting on instinct, Naruto leapt forward and kicked the strange puppet as it lunged for the red haired girl. The wooden combatant flew backwards before being pulled back to its owner on invisible strings. The small skirmish stopped immediately as all the combatants looked to Naruto as he created two shadow clones.

"What are you doing getting in the way?" the boy with the puppet growled.

"What the hell is going on here?" Naruto asked in response, as his clones readied themselves for a fight.

"Just trying to teach these three brats some manners."

"Brats?" the red haired girl questioned. "I apologized for bumping into you, you pajama wearing, jackass!"

"What'd you just call me?" the black garbed boy growled as his blonde companion brought her fan into a ready stance.

"Kankuro, Temari, that's enough." A new voice called. The entire group turned to see another red haired boy with dark rings under his eyes and a large gourd strapped to his back, standing upside down on a tree branch.

"Ga-Gaara?" the boy, Kankuro stuttered, "I-I was just…"

"These three attacked us and then the fourth showed up and…"

"Shut up or else I'll kill you both myself." Gaara cut them both off coldly, before disappearing from his branch and reappearing in the midst of the group. The Suna redhead stared at Naruto and the others for a moment before speaking again. "I apologize for my brother and Sister's actions. Please excuse us."

Naruto just stared at the Suna genin utterly flabbergasted as his clones dispersed. '_First he threatens to kill his own brother and sister over a petty squabble, then he politely apologizes to total strangers. What's up with this guy?' _Naruto watched as Gaara walked right past him followed by his, now cowed, brother and sister. He turned to follow them and watched as the three red haired genin he'd assisted gave the three Suna genin a wide berth.

"Hey." Naruto called out causing the Suna genin to pause. "Just who are you?"

"I'm Gaara of the Desert." He introduced himself as he turned around. "I admit, I'm curious to know who you are as well."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto reciprocated, "You're here for the chunin exams right?" Gaara nodded in response. "In that case I hope I get to face off against you at some point." In that moment nothing else existed, not the three red haired genin nor Gaara's siblings. In that moment there was only Naruto and Gaara, and while Gaara didn't respond, at least not verbally, Naruto felt a crushing pressure wash over him. Naruto immediately recognized it as an untamable bloodlust, but with something else mixed in. Excitement perhaps. Despite the bloodlust, Naruto found himself smiling in response.

"I look forward to testing my existence against yours." Gaara said before he and his siblings departed.

* * *

"Did, did you say your name was Uzumaki?" Karin asked once the Suna genin had left. Naruto turned to look at her and her team with a large smile on his face.

"That's right." He confirmed holding out his hand. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of Konoha."

Karin smiled wide as she turned to her teammates. "Torren, Kado, did you hear that. He's an Uzumaki like us."

"Like us?" Naruto questioned, "Then you mean?"

"I'm Karin, and this is Torren and Kado of the Uzumaki Clan of Uzushio." Karin happily introduced herself and her teammates.

"Uzumaki Clan? Uzushio?" Naruto repeated slowly as realization dawned on him.

"Yeah. There's a whole village of…" Torren started before he was interrupted by Naruto suddenly breaking into a sob. "Uh… Are you ok?"

"All this time I thought I was alone." Naruto sobbed, "That I was the only one left."

Karin exchanged a look between her two teammates before all three of them pulled their sobbing clan mate into hug. "It's ok Naruto, you'll never be alone again." She promised him.

* * *

_Naruto is introduced to his long lost clan and they have some important news to tell him. Next time Senkai's Regret_

* * *

**AN: Welp that took longer than expected. Sorry about the delay, had a short bout with writer's block there, but I managed to get over it. So this is it. This was one of the main reasons I started this story. To have Naruto meet up with his own clan and see where things went from there. I rather like how it turned out and hope with all my heart that you guys do as well. As always please read and review. Oh I almost forgot, a little preview of the next chapter of Reincarnation Cycle. Hope you enjoy**

* * *

Tsubaki ducked under the swinging blade and jabbed the point of her staff into her attacker's gut. She followed with a savage strike that took the Uchiha across the face. She spun around just in time to parry a lunging stab from another Uchiha. She countered with a quick tap on the shoulder before hooking the staff behind her new opponent's leg. She spun the staff over her head before she brought it crashing down on her enemy's head. A soft _ting _reached her ears instead of the sickening _crunch _she was expecting however. She looked up to find her staff had been blocked by a newcomer.

The injured Uchiha crawled away as Tsubaki and this new Uchiha broke apart and circled each other. The Uchiha's sharingan flared to life as they both charged forward. Tsubaki smiled as her initial onslaught of blows was expertly defended against by the Uchiha. The Uchiha in turn counter attacked with a combination of slashes and cuts that flowed fluidly form one form to the next. Her staff met his sword countless times before the Uchiha drew first blood. A small cut on her left thigh, not debilitating but definitely a hindrance.

'_He's not just following my moves and reacting to them.' _Tsubaki realized, '_He's anticipating and predicting them. His sharingan is better than the other's I've fought today.' _She smiled fiercely at the Uchiha, "What's your name?"

"Kenshiro." the Uchiha responded, "Yours?"

"Tsubaki."

"I'll remember you Tsubaki." With that Tsubaki and Kenshiro rejoined their duel.


	19. Senkai's Regret

"Hmm, this is the hardest decision I've had to make in quite a while." Senkai muttered to her companion sitting across from her. A large man with wild scarlet hair and an even wilder beard and mustache, Kurma Uzumaki smiled politely as he waited for his leader to make her choice. "Should I promote him or not?"

"It is an important decision." Kurma replied, "With lots of consequences should it be incorrect."

"If I promote him, he won't be able to move as freely as he can now. Though he could arguably get more done."

"It is true that the restrictions of being promoted do make him less versatile." Kurma acknowledged, "However at the same time there's that old saying, when one door closes another opens. Just because he's not as versatile as he was before doesn't mean he's completely useless to you."

Senkai eyed her companion warily, "You seem to have a vested interest in whether or not I promote him. Are you trying to motivate my choice?"

Kurma smiled as he reached for a cup of sake. "Not at all. I'm just trying to tell you that a certain loss of versatility doesn't necessarily diminish what he can accomplish for you."

Senkai found herself smiling at Kurma's sudden diplomacy, "Bullshit. You want me to promote him because it will benefit you in the long run won't it."

"Lady Senkai, I can assure you that whether or not you promote him, has absolutely zero impact on me."

"Yeah, no. Sorry not falling for it. No promotion for him. So tell me Kurma, how does that mess up your plans?"

Kurma smiled at his clan leader, "Not at all. For you see, I truly didn't care if you promoted your silver general to a golden one because," Kurma picked up his Dragon King tile and placed it in the exact spot he needed to win their match. "That's a checkmate."

Senkai's eyes widened as she looked over the board in astonishment. "What, how? You sneaky bastard." Kurma shrugged his large shoulders.

"What? I told you it didn't matter to me if you promoted him or not." The large man said defensively.

"Yes but you made it sound like the decision would actually have an effect on the game." Senkai replied. "All it did was distract me."

"And that had an effect on the game." Kurma said, with the smuggest grin he could manage.

"Kurma, I swear if you don't wipe that shit eating grin off your face I will…" Senkai's threat was cut off by the door flying open with Kurma's three genin students coming into the room, followed by a young boy in orange with blonde hair.

"Lady Senkai, Kurma Sensei!" Torren announced as all four of the children slid to a stop before them, "You'll never guess who this is." With that Torren gave the blonde a light shove front and center.

Senkai eyed the boy for a moment before she smiled, "Naruto Uzumaki, it's a pleasure to meet you." Senkai fought hard to keep herself from laughing at the expressions that appeared on the genin's faces, Kurma however made no such reservations for his pupils.

"You know who I am?" Naruto asked bewildered. "Have we met before?"

"Unfortunately we have not met before." Senkai admitted. "Your brother told me all about you however."

"You knew Arashi before he died?" Naruto asked.

"I know Arashi quite well." Senkai clarified. "He's been a great help in rebuilding our clan and villa… what do you mean before he died?"

"Arashi died on a mission five years ago." Naruto said, his breathing becoming noticeably heavier. "His team was sent out to capture Itachi Uchiha but they were beaten. Hokori was crippled, and Ayame was in a coma but they…"

"They never located his body." The Uzumaki clan head finished. Senkai could see Naruto putting the dots together. His breathing became more labored and his eyes were taking on an almost wild sheen to them. "Naruto, your brother's alive."

"Why didn't he come home then?" Naruto snapped tears flowing freely down his face, "Why didn't he come back for me? Why after five goddamn years am I just hearing about it now?" Naruto thought back to the night he became a genin, the words that Mizuki had taunted him with. "Why did he abandon me?"

"Abandon you?" Senkai asked, "How could you think he'd abandoned you. How could you even think he was dead? Arashi wrote dozens if not hundreds of letters to you. At least once a week."

Naruto shouted at her. "For five years I've not heard a damn word about him!"

Realization struck Senkai like a full powered bijudama. "Oh my God." She muttered, "Oh my God, you mean after all this time you've never once received a letter he wrote for you?"

"Not a single one." Naruto confirmed for her.

Senkai turned to look at Kurma who had a similar look of horror and sorrow on his face. His three students who were looking at their newest clan mate with a great deal of confusion. "Naruto I'm so sorry. All this time I, we thought you were being kept up to date." Naruto shook his head, and Senkai forced herself to take a deep breath. "Well then it looks like I've got some explaining to do."

* * *

_Senkai cupped her hands in the river and brought the clear water to her lips as her companion filled their canteens. As water dripped down her chin Senkai scanned the surrounding forest for signs of life._

"_It doesn't make any sense." She muttered. "The chakra signature I sensed was somewhere over here." Her companion stood silently as Senkai pricked her thumb and weaved her hands through a set of seals. Once the sequence was finished she slammed the hand with the bloody thumb on the water's surface. There was a great puff of smoke that cleared to show a white turtle, larger than the average man, floating where Senkai had summoned him._

"_You sent for me mistress?" the turtle asked, bowing his head as he spoke._

"_Kameshiru I need you to swim up river." Senkai explained. "There's someone here that we need to find. Find them and bring them here."_

"_Whom am I searching for if I may ask?" Kameshiru inquired._

"_An Uzumaki like me." She answered. "Please find them quickly." Kameshiru bowed his head before he began his search up river. _

"_You think he'll find this person?" Senkai's companion asked._

"_Kameshiru's sensory abilities surpass my own Agnihem." Senkai replied, "I can only get a general area, he can pinpoint. He'll find who we're here for. I have no doubts."_

"_Alright, and what if this person doesn't want to come with us?" Agnihem put forward. Senkai took a deep breath. It was always a possibility, that one of her lost clan mates had no interests in rejoining their clan. She couldn't blame or hold it against them. All she could do was hope and cling to those who decided to come home._

"_That will be their decision." She said as she looked hopefully up the river. "With any luck however we'll soon have a new clan mate my friend."_

_Agnihem smiled as he ran his fingers through his snow white hair. "I keep telling you Senkai, I'm not joining your clan, I'm just helping you find them."_

"_And living with us, eating our food, treating out sick… I could go on Mr. Akamizu." Senkai teased. "Just face it Agnihem, you're an Uzumaki in everything but name and blood." Agnihem opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by Senkai shooting up to her feet. "Kameshiru's coming back."_

"_Is he bringing back our new Uzumaki?"_

_Senkai closed her eyes and focused in on the chakra signature she'd been tracking. It was there, mixed in with Kameshiru's. "Yes." Within a few moments the large turtle was in sight with a body slung over his shell. Immediately Senkai and Agnihem rushed onto the water to bring the injured Uzumaki onto shore._

"_I found him floating in the river." Kameshiru explained as they laid him on the shore. Senkai nodded as she checked the unconscious man's pulse. The man's heart was beating a mile a minute, but was strong._

"_Senkai, this guy's an ANBU from Konoha." Agnihem told her, "Look at the uniform."_

"_What does that have to do with anything Agnihem?" Senkai asked as she checked her unconscious clan mate over for wounds. That's when the man's eyes shot open and his arm reached for Senkai's throat. "Hey, take it easy." Senkai shouted as she caught the man's wrist and forced it down. "We're trying to help you, my name is Senkai Uzumaki and this is Agnihem Akamizu. Can you tell us your name?"_

_The man breathed heavily for a few moments, his eyes wildly darting to and fro before groaning out, "Arashi." and just as suddenly as he had awoken, Arashi fell back into unconsciousness._

* * *

Naruto sat stock still as he listened to Senkai's story of how she had met his brother. Behind her sat Karin and her teammates with their sensei Kurma. Senkai explained how Arashi, once recovered helped Senkai find and gather more of their lost clan mates.

"He wanted to come back to you as soon as he was able to walk again, but I insisted he wait until he made a full recovery." Senkai explained, sorrow still clearly visible on her face. "Once he was recovered and I saw how strong he was, I begged him not to leave until our clan was strong enough to stand without him. During this time I repeatedly tried to make him the leader of the clan and village so he wouldn't leave. He didn't abandon you Naruto. I've kept him from you." Senkai paused a moment as she moved to wipe some tears from her eyes. "Naruto I'm so sorry that I've done this to you."

Naruto looked over to the other Uzumakis in the room. The three genin all looked like they were in the middle of the most awkward situation they've ever been in in their entire lives. Kurma however seemed to be hiding his emotions beneath a mask. Naruto looked back to Senkai who was openly weeping for her part in Naruto's suffering. Naruto took a deep breath before he reached out and placed his hand on Senkai's shoulder. The red haired woman looked up at the young blonde boy, and was surprised not find a look of hatred or anger on his face but instead one of sympathy. She was even more surprised when Naruto threw his arms around her neck and hugged her closely.

"My brother's alive." Naruto sobbed, "How could I be angry with the person who saved him?" Senkai choked out a laugh as she returned Naruto's hug.

* * *

Arashi sat cross legged under the waterfall. He remained perfectly still as thousands of gallons of water poured over him. His palms pressed together as he focused on the natural chakra flowing into his body. He could feel the scales forming around his neck as the chakra altered his body. He smiled as he felt the plates forming across his back and chest.

"Lord Arashikage!" the smile on Arashi's face vanished nearly instantly as his hated nickname assaulted his ears and broke his concentration. He quickly dispersed the natural chakra that had been building up within him before he lost himself. He opened his eyes to find a young man running towards him. The young man wore the poncho, flak jacket combo that had come to be favored by Uzushio shinobi, his red hair was pulled back into a top knot.

"This had better be good Haru" Arashi grumbled as the young Uzumaki stopped just short of the waterfall Arashi had situated himself in. Haru took a moment to catch his breath before he held out a scroll. With a sigh Arashi removed himself from the waterfall and strode toward the messenger.

"It's from Lady Senkai, Lord Arashikage." Haru said as Arashi took the scroll. Arashi gave Haru a withering glare at the second use of the unwanted nickname. If the glare had any effect on the younger Uzumaki, he did an excellent job not showing it. Though if Arashi were honest with himself he knew that absolutely no one in the village felt the glare was threatening at all.

"Why does everyone in the village insist on calling me that?" Arashi asked for what he felt was the billionth time.

"It's our way of showing you what we feel is proper respect." Haru replied, as everyone in the village always did. Arashi rolled his eyes as he awaited the second part of the reply. "And because at this point it's just fun to watch your reaction."

Despite himself Arashi smiled. "How could Senkai have sent a letter from Konoha? She should only have just got there, what a day or two ago."

"This didn't arrive by messenger hawk." Haru replied.

"Ah she used a turtle." Arashi surmised as he unrolled the scroll. Quickly his eyes began to scan the message and the smile returned to his face. He quickly reread the message to make sure he wasn't seeing things before laughter escaped his lips. Arashi left Haru as he rushed back to his house. Within minutes he had a bag packed.

"Naruto, I'm coming home."

* * *

_After five grueling days of training Team 7 is ready for the Chunin Exams. What challenges and foes will they face next time. The Examinations begin._

* * *

**AN: So yeah you guys know the drill by now. Sorry for the delay. This chapter was a bit of a pain. You ever have that chapter or essay or whatever you got to write, where you have a good start for it but about halfway through you don't know what to do with it? Well this was that for me. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy the chapter. Chunin Exams are up next. And to those of you who were hoping I'd use this chapter to describe Uzushio a little bit, sorry but it'll have to wait.**


	20. The Examinations Begin

**Oi. Uber long delay is uber long. So sorry about everything. Writer's block is an utter bitch and I swear I've had to open like the last couple of chapters with this talk. Anyway as always hope you guys enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Sasuke sat alone in his living room, looking over the scrolls of fire and lightning jutsu Kakashi had given him before he had recommended them for the Chunin Exams. Sasuke had more or less learned what was in the fire scroll and was mostly just looking it over for review.

The lightning scroll on the other hand was proving to be a bit challenging for him. He knew the basics and theory of how it all worked. Unlike fire style jutsus where the user had to basically focus their chakra in the stomach to heat it up before expelling it, usually though the mouth, lightning style jutsu worked on an entirely different principle. Instead a user of lightning style jutsu had to focus their chakra on any part of the body, although hands and feet seem to be the primary focus points, and release the chakra through their nervous system. In addition, while fire and most other types of jutsu were primarily used for ranged attacks, lightning style attacks seemed almost entirely devoted towards increasing and enhancing the effectiveness of the user's taijutsu.

Frowning over the scroll again Sasuke lifted his hands, and with the Sharingan active, weaved them through a sequence of seals before focusing his chakra at his fingertips. It was listed as one of the easiest, not to mention one of the only ranged, lightning jutsu in the scroll. The Spark Bullet. Sasuke felt a slight tingle on the tip of his forefinger as small blue electrical sparks gathered there. Searching the living room for a target, Sasuke found himself pointing his charged finger at an empty glass in the next room. Imagining a trigger being pulled, he loosed the electric bullet straight at the glass, shattering upon impact.

Nodding appreciatively at the results, Sasuke grabbed the broom and dust bin and set about sweeping up the shards before heading for bed. As he settled in, Sasuke thought over the previous four days of training, he, his team, and the three Uzumakis from Uzushio had gone through. While he and Naruto had definitely improved over the course of those days, and the foreign Uzumakis were quite skilled themselves, Sasuke was a little surprised with the amount of improvement Sakura had showed on the very first day.

* * *

_Naruto rolled across the ground, narrowly avoiding the shuriken thrown by Torren. As he rose to his knees, his fellow Uzumaki rushed forward to kick him square in the face. Naruto's hands shot up just in time to catch Torren's foot. With his opponent's foot in hand, Naruto quickly rose to his feet while yanking Torren's leg upwards._

"_Don't you da..." He warned as Naruto kicked him in the crotch. _

_Torren's hands went to his injured area as Naruto let him crumple to the ground. _

"_You fucking prick!" Torren cried out, his voice at a higher pitch than usual. _

_Naruto let out a small chuckle before a foot connected with the back of his head._

"_That's just not right Naruto." Kado stated as he kicked Naruto away from his fallen teammate. _

_Once the blonde was gone, he helped Torren to his feet. "You feeling alright?"_

"_I'm gonna kill him," Torren groaned, still cradling his injured groin. "I don't care if he's Arashi's brother, I'm gonna kill him!"_

"_Sure you are." Kado replied patting him on the shoulder. "Why don't you go sit next to Karin? I'll take it from here."_

_Still mumbling curses Torren hobbled his way over to where Karin was watching the sparring session unfold. Despite having gone first, her round had been against Sasuke so she was still breathing heavily from exhaustion. He propped himself up against a fallen and gratefully accepted the bag of ice provided by Karin._

_Kado chuckled to himself as he turned to see if Naruto would continue fighting or turn the reins over to one of his teammates. For a moment it looked as though Naruto would continue before his knees gave out on him. Not that surprising considering he and Torren had been fighting for about a half hour._

"_Damn it." the blond cursed, "Sakura you're up."_

_After a moment's hesitation Sakura stepped forward and stood across from Kado, Kado smiled before assuming his opening stance, noting that while Sakura took hers, her knees and hands were trembling. _

"_You nervous?" he asked, slowly inching his way forward. "Eh don't worry it's just a simple sparring match. I'll go easy on ya."_

_Sakura took a stumbling step backward as Kado lunged forward, lightly jabbing at her face with his right fist. Much to his surprise, Sakura's hand shot up and knocked the jab aside while her other hand lashed out and landed squarely in his gut. As he doubled over Sakura struck his nose with the heel of her palm, snapping his head back. Finally she swept his legs out from under him and placed a foot casually on his chest._

_Kado could only stare up in complete shock as Sakura looked down at him, an amused smirk playing at her lips. _

"_Well isn't that sweet of you." Sakura said, her voice taking only a slightly mocking tone. "But I don't think that will be necessary." Naruto gave out a laugh as Kado shoved Sakura's foot off of his chest and rose to his feet, a small smile on his own face._

"_Well I guess I had that one coming." he admitted dropping into another ready stance. "Ready to go again?" Sakura smiled in response._

* * *

Kado had ended up winning that fight, but even still Sakura didn't make it easy for him, Sasuke recalled. After the initial encounter she proved quite adept at dodging around Kado's more cautious strikes, keeping her feet constantly in motion. The idea was to have Kado tire himself out trying to hit her before she would come in for the kill. Unfortunately Sakura's stamina wasn't the greatest and while she was able to land a few punches on him, Kado ultimately proved able to give what he took, with interest.

After Kado put Sakura down with only a few well connected punches, Sasuke was a little worried that Sakura would take it as proof that she wasn't ready to take the exams.

He was however pleasantly surprised to find that Sakura seemed rather heartened by her sparring match. True she didn't win, but then taijutsu wasn't exactly her specialty, but when their training turned to genjutsu, that is where she truly dominated. Sasuke smiled at the memory of Naruto and the other Uzumaki's actions while under the influence of Sakura's genjutsu. For a brief moment Sasuke thought that Naruto was going to swear off ramen forever after he spat the worms out. Sasuke spared from a similar fate thanks to his sharingan seeing through the illusion with ease.

As sleep took him, Sasuke was sure that tomorrow he would find Sakura ready and raring for the exams.

* * *

'_If the Senju are considered masters of Ninjutsu, the Hyuuga Taijutsu, and the Uchiha Genjutsu, then our own Uzumaki clan are the undisputed masters of Fuinjutsu.' _The scroll in Naruto's hand had begun as he sat on his couch pouring over one of Arashi's scrolls. This particular scroll, Naruto discovered, was all about the basic and finer applications of seals and sealing techniques, more commonly known as fuinjutsu. Naruto vaguely recalled Arashi trying to teach him about the so called, "Uzumaki past time" about a year after he'd entered the academy. Naruto however had protested, claiming that he had enough to bloody work on at school and didn't want more stuff added at home as well. So Arashi had relented and told him he'd teach him about it later.

"Maybe I should've payed a little more attention back then." Naruto muttered as he attempted to decipher what the scrolls were trying to teach him. From what he could decipher, fuinjutsu could be used for something as mundane as sealing a variety of weapons into a scroll for easy carrying, to something as dangerous as creating a giant vortex that sucked up everything around it. Even the Fourth Hokage's infamous Flying Thunder God technique was the result of fuinjutsu, and according to this scroll the Uzumaki created a seal so dangerous that use of it was forbidden by pain of death. It all depended on the seal being written down properly and the correct amount of chakra being applied.

While Naruto's chakra control couldn't be called exemplary, his work with the tree climbing, water walking, and wind nature had considerably improved his overall control, so that aspect of Fuinjutsu shouldn't be that much of a problem. Naruto scowled as he recalled that his calligraphy skills had left much to be desired.

"Well maybe if anybody had told me that calligraphy would be instrumental to my clan's ninja arts I would've put more effort into it." He muttered shortly before remembering that his brother had told him exactly that. Placing the scroll on the table Naruto glanced over at the clock to find the time was 2:15 PM.

'_Hmm, that's odd.' _Naruto thought as he stared at the time piece. '_It was only 12:00 when I pulled out this scroll. I've really been reading through this for over 2 hours? Just 45 minutes before the Chunin exams start...'_ "45 minutes!" he swore loudly as he jumped to his feet, his chair knocking over with a loud crash, and sprinted for the window. Scooping up his sandals as he ran, Naruto leapt from the window and landed with a roll. On his feet in a flash, Naruto hopped down the road frantically trying to tug his sandals on his feet. "No way in Hell am going to be late for this!"

* * *

Sakura was the first one to make it to the academy. Forcing herself to arrive an hour before deadline, she had plenty of time to go over her five days of training with her team and the three Uzumakis from Uzushio. The three of them worked very well together and could each hold their own apart, recalling the half hour long sparring match between Naruto and Torren. Karin had even lasted a reasonably long time against Sasuke. Although she had seemed to enjoy the brief contact with the Uchiha a bit too much in Sakura's opinion.

Sakura had thought about her own progress throughout the five days, Whenever the group would have an individual sparring sessions, Sakura always found herself paired off with Kado, whom Torren and Karin both admitted was the best fighter between the three of them, in the hopes that it would improve her skills more quickly to fight someone significantly better than her. She smiled at the memory of putting him flat on his ass in the beginning of their bout. That along with the rest of the progress she had made during the week had just about dashed away her doubts that she could measure up to the standards set by both of her teammates.

"Had a feeling you'd be here first." Sasuke's voice called from her left. She turned to see the raven haired Uchiha. "You ready for this?"

Sakura nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be. I have to thank you for helping me believe in myself when all this started."

Sasuke smiled in response, a rare sight that seemed to be becoming more frequent since their days at the academy. "So no sign of Naruto yet?"

"Not yet. I swear he's starting to become as bad as Kakashi Sensei."

"Oh come on! I was late one time!" Naruto's voice called from the opposite direction. The two turned to see Naruto sliding to a stop just inches from them. "Just… sprinted here… from my… apartment." the blonde wheezed. "Need… a minute… to catch my… breath."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you're always overdoing it Naruto." Despite sounding severe to her teammate, she couldn't help but smile. Naruto flashed a toothy grin back as Sasuke moved to open the gate to the academy.

"Let's go guys." he said. "We've got some chunin exams to pass."

* * *

Rock Lee stood high on the balcony, looking down at the three younger genin as they gazed up at him. Smiling that he had their attention, he vaulted over the railing and fell down to the floor, performing a single flip before landing in a three point stance.

He was pleased to find all eyes were still on him, standing to his full height and assuming his ready stance with one arm behind his back, the other pointing forward, palm facing the ceiling.

"You are Sasuke Uchiha, correct?" he asked, directing his question to the raven-haired young man who stared at him with an almost bemused curiosity.

"I am." was the simple response.

"Excellent, my name is Rock Lee, please fight me." There was a brief pause as the three younger genin looked at him, dumbstruck. Sasuke's recovered first, giving Lee a quick up and down stare. He knew that Sasuke had recognized him as the one who had stopped his fight with the bully just a few minutes ago. Lee smiled as Sasuke measured him up, trying to ascertain if he would be a worthy fight.

Next to him his teammate, Naruto Uzumaki, a fellow 'Dead Last' student, rolled his eyes before muttering under his breath. Lee knew Naruto was griping about how everybody was always focusing on Sasuke and ignoring him, and Lee empathized with him. After all, Lee himself had made several similar comments over the last year in regards to his own teammate, Neji Hyuuga.

"Don't worry Naruto Uzumaki." Lee said, shifting his gaze to the blonde, "I very much desire a bout with you as well, but for now I only wish to fight with Sasuke." Lee recognized the expression that appeared on Naruto's face immediately. Again it was an expression that Lee was well familiar with, having worn it when Guy Sensei first declared that he, 'Dead Last' Rock Lee, the genin with zero talent with ninjutsu or genjutsu, could and would become one of the greatest ninja of his generation. It was surprise. Surprise that someone saw something of worth in him.

Lee gave his younger counterpart a nod before he turned his attention towards Sakura Haruno who'd simply been staring at him ever since he'd challenged Sasuke. Rock Lee felt the blood rushing to his cheeks as she continued to scrutinize him.

"Rock Lee?" she muttered before her face brightened. "Oh that's right. You were the student who graduated last year who couldn't use any ninjutsu or genjutsu. Weren't you last year's 'Dead Last' student?"

"As smart as you are beautiful." Lee replied, eliciting a scarlet face for Sakura and a raised eyebrow from the other two. "It's true last year I was the 'Dead Last' student who couldn't even perform simple ninjutsu or genjutsu, but I've devoted the last year to making sure my taijutsu skills are unbeatable." Lee left out how despite that he was still unable to defeat his teammate and rival, Neji Hyuuga. "I want to test how far I've come, so once again Sasuke Uchiha, Top Rookie of your year, will you accept my challenge?"

Sasuke seemed to mull over the proposition in his head, but Lee already suspected the inevitable response. There was virtually no way that Sasuke's pride would allow him to turn down a challenge, especially not against a 'Dead Last'. His Uchiha pride if nothing else would demand he put the upstart in his place. His supposition was ultimately gratified as Sasuke agreed to the challenge. Satisfied, Lee made the symbol of combat with his right index and middle fingers while Sasuke did the same with his left.

'_Left handed huh, interesting.' _Lee thought as he switched back to his opening stance. Sasuke in turn slid into a loose ready stance, hands held out in front, left slightly higher than the right, fingers curled but not tightly into fists. The two stared each other down, waiting for the other to make the first move.

Sasuke moved first, closing the distance between them quickly and kicking for Lee's front leg. Lee's counter was simple and immediate, sliding his back foot forward he lifted his front foot over Sasuke's sweeping kick. Snapping his leg out, Lee kicked Sasuke square in the face, stunning him long enough for Lee to press the attack with a one two punch combo that sent Sasuke flying back.

The raven haired Uchiha landed firmly on his feet and glared at Lee, blood leaking from his nose. Lee smiled back at him before tapping on his temple.

'_Rather careless of him not using his sharingan. Hopefully now he realizes that he'll need it if he wants to fight me seriously.'_

He evidently did, because the next time he charged, Sasuke's eyes were a blazing scarlet with three tomoe encircling his pupil. Now Lee would discover if he were a match for the most dangerous eyes in Konoha.

Again Sasuke moved first unleashing a flurry of punches and kicks. Lee blocked or dodged all of them but was unable to get enough space to unleash his own attacks.

'_He's good. Very good.' _Lee thought as he narrowly avoided a kick to the stomach, '_The power of youth is strong in him,'_ That was when Sasuke landed his first punch, catching Lee on the cheek. The green clad genin slid back a few feet from the force of the punch. '_But it is also strong in me.' _As Sasuke bore down on him Lee leaned back and propping himself up with his hand, he kicked Sasuke directly under his chin. The strength of the kick lifted Sasuke in the air as he arched away, and for a moment Lee considered following through with the Primary Lotus.

He decided against it however. Sasuke may have been an opponent, but he wasn't an enemy. The Uchiha landed with a thud a good ten feet away from where Lee had launched him into the air. As he struggled to regain his feet, Lee walked over to the fallen boy and offered his hand. Sasuke stared at the offering before accepting it and pulled himself to his feet.

"Thank you for a strong match." Lee said as he smiled and clapped Sasuke on his shoulder.

Sasuke stood there massaging his sore jaw before he replied, "That was one hell of kick. What's that move called?"

"It's the opening move of the Primary Lotus." a new voice announced causing all four of the genin to turn to its source. Lee's eyes brightened as they fell upon the greatest Taijutsu master in all of Konoha. Standing where he stood a few short minutes ago was his great sensei, Might Guy.

* * *

_Team 7 enters the Chunin Exams and find themselves facing a most unexpected foe. A written exam! Next time: The First Exam: Cheat or Fail_


	21. The First Exam: Cheat or Fail

**AN: I know right, an update within a month of the last one. Must be a sign of the apocalypse or something. Self Deprecating aside as always hope you enjoy the chapter and please feel free to leave a review. Thank you for your time.**

For their part, it took a considerable amount of willpower from team 7 not to stare at the strange new man wearing the green spandex jumpsuit and monstrously large eyebrows. The three of them had heard of Might Guy of course, the man's exploits were known throughout the village. However none of them would've pictured Konoha's foremost taijutsu master looking like this. Naruto took a look at the near legendary jounin then at Lee, who was staring at the man with total reverence, and thought, if not for the different names, there might've been the possibility that they were father and son. They kinda looked alike, wore the same jumpsuit, had their hair cut in identical fashions, and wore their Konoha headbands as belts. They even had the same massive eyebrows.

"Ah, the flames of youth burned brightly in both of you." Guy said while placing his hand on Lee's shoulder, while giving an approving look at Sasuke. It was then that he looked over to Naruto and Sakura, his smile wide as ever he gave them a thumbs up. "I expect I'll be seeing the fires of youth burn passionately in you two during these exams as well." Beside him Sakura blushed as Naruto just smiled and returned the gesture.

"Now then you kids are Kakashi's I take it." Guy said standing to his full height sizing the three of them up. He was silent for another moment before his smile grew even wider. "I can tell he's done a fine job training you three. What do you think Lee?"

The younger taijutsu specialist jumped at the mention of his name and bowed deeply. "I agree Guy-Sensei. Although I only sparred with Sasuke I can tell that both Naruto and Sakura are equally skilled in their own fields."

Naruto and Sakura's face both brightened at Lee saying that he felt they were equally skilled as Sasuke. They both knew it was true, that there were things they could do better than him, like he could do things better than both of them. However most people they'd dealt over the past few months seemed to think that because Sasuke was an Uchiha, he was by default better at everything. It was nice to meet people who thought they had their own strengths.

"Yes but for the moment it seems my training is superior." Guy chuckled, "I'll have to tell Kakashi that the score is now 21 to 20."

"Forgive me Guy-Sensei but I don't think a single sparring match is enough to gauge who's had the superior training." Lee interrupted, "Perhaps you should wait until after the exams to change the score."

Might Guy considered his students words for a moment, "You're right Lee, better to wait and see the results of these exams. The score remains 20 to 20."

The significance of these words were not lost on Team 7. In whatever strange competition Might Guy had going on with Kakashi, the two were tied with the results of these exams determining who would pull ahead.

'_Heh, no preasure.'_ Naruto thought as Guy and Lee both provided them with another thumbs up before departing.

"Those guys are kinda weird." Sakura stated as they also continued to the examination room.

"I hope there are others as strong as that Lee guy." Sasuke commented, mostly to himself. "But yeah, they did kinda freak me out abit with the eyebrows."

"Well I liked em." Naruto said placing his hands behind his head. '_That weird Gaara guy from Suna, Kado, Karin and Torren, and Rock Lee. These Exams are going to be awesome!'_

* * *

Hinata had tried her hardest not to stare at Naruto when he and his team entered the room, had tried even harder not to blush as Kiba lead their team over to them. She ultimately failed on both accounts but was spared from some embarrassment by Ino Yamanaka who had, rather enthusiastically, jumped Sasuke. The ensuing argument between Sakura and Ino provided enough of a diversion for Hinata to get a hold of herself, but even without using her byakugan, the Hyuuga heiress knew that the rather loud exchange was causing more than a few pairs of eyes to glare at them.

"Well looks like the gang's all here." Kiba said as Sasuke managed to wriggle his way free from Ino. "The Rookie Nine are back together."

"The what?" Naruto asked giving Kiba a quizzical look.

"Some stupid nickname the older Konoha genin teams are calling all of us." Shikamaru Nara explained, Choji Akimichi was next to him munching on a bag of chips. "They make such a big deal over all three rookie teams taking the exams this year that I honestly wish that I hadn't agreed to go along with it."

"Th-then why d-did you?" Hinata stuttered.

Shikamaru cast a lazy glare at Ino who'd finally stopped arguing with Sakura. "My father always taught me that pissing off the women in my life can be… troublesome."

Hinata sympathized with him. She hadn't felt particularly ready for these exams either but at the same time she didn't want to let her team down. Shino, as always was silent about the matter, but Kiba couldn't help but chuckle.

"Man you're not even going out with her and she's got you whipped." That got a chuckle out of Naruto and a glare from both Shikamaru and Ino. Before either of them could say anything however the door to the room opened once more. The nine of them turned to see a group of three red haired genin walk in the room.

"See you guys I told you we'd find it eventually." one of the red heads, a boy with short trim hair, dark gray shirt and black pants, said to his teammates.

A girl with shoulder length hair, glasses, a light purple shirt, black shorts, and red eyes, responded with a scoff. "Well no duh you dolt. You looked into every damn door on this floor"

"We were bound to find it sooner or later." another boy with longer hair than either of them tied into a ponytail, a dark green long sleeved shirt and light blue pants. "Might've been sooner if one of us had taken the lead."

The first two wore their headbands tied around their brows while the third wore his around his right arm. Hinata didn't immediately recognize the symbol on the metal plate but after a moment found it identical to the Uzumaki clan symbol on Naruto's back and shoulder.

"Kado! Karin! Torren!" Naruto called out waving over to them. "Over here!"

'_Naruto knows them?' _ Hinata thought as the three strange redheads smiled and started for them. Naruto met them halfway and wrapped all three of them into a hug. Hinata tried not to be jealous as the remaining eight of them worked their way over.

"Who the hell are they?" Kiba asked Sasuke and Sakura.

"I'll let Naruto tell you." Sakura replied with a smile. Hinata thought she saw a degree of satisfaction on the pinkette's face. She looked to Sasuke to see a similar look on his face, but his eyes also held an emotion that Hinata was very used to seeing within her own clan. Bitterness. She blinked in surprise at that but upon a second look she couldn't find it again.

"So Naruto, care to introduce us to your friends?" Choji asked before popping some more chips into his mouth.

Hinata's crush smiled wide as stepped to the side. "Guys, this is Kado Uzumaki, Karin Uzumaki, and Torrin Uzumaki of Uzushio. They're my clanmates."

* * *

Torren smiled sheepishly as Naruto introduced him and his teammates to the other Konoha rookies. He noted the look of surprise on each of their faces at the mention of both their clan names and Uzushio.

"Nice to meet you all." Kado said with a respectful bow to the other genin. Almost immediately some of the Konoha genin were bombarding them with questions. What kind of food was there in Uzushio? Did they have any unique breeds of dogs? Were there any cute boys? Kado and Torrin deferred that question to Karin. The rather pale guy with black glasses even asked what species of insects lived in their village.

Torren noted that the only two not asking questions was the guy with his headband tied to his arm like Kado, '_Think Naruto said his name was Shikamaru'_ and the Hyuuga girl, '_And she was Hinata.'_ Shikamaru looked like he really didn't care enough to ask any questions, and Hinata seemed to take the opportunity to look at Naruto… who was oblivious. '_If she doesn't have a crush on him, I'll shave my head and become a monk.'_

Just as the three of them managed to put an end to the questioning, Torren heard a soft chuckling. The twelve of them turned to see a Konoha genin, a bit older than all of them, wearing a purple shirt and pants, glasses and white hair walking over to them.

"You guys just don't know when to keep quiet do you?" the newcomer asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kiba demanded, his dog barking from atop his head. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"Well my name's Kabuto, and do you see those all those guys over there?" the white haired man asked, gesturing to all of the other genin in the room. For the first time Torren noticed that they were all glaring at him and the others. "Some of them were already going to be gunning for you lot because you're rookies. But with the way you guys just keep drawing attention to yourselves you can change some to most. Get the picture?"

No sooner had the words left Kabuto's mouth had Naruto rather loudly declared, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki! And I'm going to beat every single one of you!" Suddenly literally every single eye was on the loud mouthed blonde in bright orange. The remaining eight Rookie Nine, the three Uzushio Uzumaki's and Kabuto all sweatdropped.

"And now change most to all." Kado said as Sakura delivered a rather spectacular blow to the back of Naruto's head.

Thankfully the scene before them didn't have time to progress much further. The door to the examination room slammed open as a tall man in a black trench coat over gray fatigues, a bandana styled Konoha forehead protector, and two long scars trailing down his face, stomped into the room followed by several other men in identical gray fatigues.

"Everyone take your seats and shut up." the scarred man said. Immediately Torren and the others all found empty seats. Once they were all seated the man took his place at the head of the room. "My name is Ibiki Morino, I will be your first exam proctor. The Chunin Exams begin now."

* * *

'_These are some of the hardest questions I've ever seen.' _Sakura thought silently to herself as she dutifully moved her pencil across the paper, answering her third question. To say that all of the first time takers of the Chunin Exams were surprised that the first exam was an actual written exam would be an understatement. Sakura wasn't that surprised. What did they all think they were going to be doing in a classroom.

The rules of the first exam were simple. Every genin was given a sheet of paper with nine questions on it. The exam would last for two hours. At an hour and fifty minutes, a tenth question would be given to everyone. If you failed to get enough questions right, you failed the exam. If you were caught cheating five times, you failed the exam. If you failed the exam your entire team failed with you. Simple.

At least it seemed simple at first. Then Sakura actually looked at the questions on the exam. They were the hardest, most complicated, difficult questions Sakura had ever seen before. After looking at the paper for a few minutes Sakura came to a sobering conclusion. Very few of the genin in this room would be able to answer any of these questions. Upon this realization the second failing condition made sense to her. The exam wasn't to see who could answer the questions per se. It was to see who could cheat and not get caught.

Sakura figured that Sasuke could probably uses his Sharingan in some way to get the answers but what about Naruto. She was seated directly behind him and so far, forty-five minutes into the exam, he hadn't even touched his pencil.

'_I don't think he has any special means of gathering information.' _She thought as she jotted down her fourth answer. _There's no way I can help him. Sasuke can't help him either. Cmon Naruto, you're resourceful, you can do this.'_

* * *

Naruto stared down at his blank piece of paper, a singular thought running rampant through his mind.

'_I'm fucked.'_

* * *

Kado stared down at his piece of paper, completely blank save for his name in the upper right hand corner. His left hand gripped his pencil while his right rubbed at his eyes. Fifty minutes had passed and already about ten teams had been eliminated from the exams.

'_Well it's now or never.'_ he thought as he raised his hand. "Excuse me, Proctor."

"What is it?" Ibiki asked, glaring at the young Uzumaki.

"My eyes are straining too much from a glare in the room, can I put these on?" Kado asked holding up a pair of sunglasses.

Ibiki looked at one of the lookouts around the classroom. The man stood up and walked over to where Kado was sitting. Kado handed over the glasses and the man examined them. After a moment he looked back a Ibiki and nodded his head. Ibiki nodded in return and the man handed Kado the glasses.

"Thank you." Kado said with smile as he slipped the glasses over his eyes, which could now see things much, much more clearly. With his glasses secured, Kado started writing down answers.

* * *

'_Alright, Karin should be about halfway through her exam, and Kado's putting his glasses on so he can copy down her answers.' _Torren thought as he dipped his left hand underneath his desk and made a single one hand sign. His right shoulder grew warm as the seal he had placed there released and started moving his arm and hand in conjunction with Kado's. Before long his paper was about halfway filled with answers. His arm still moving of its own accord, Torren glanced at the clock.

'_Forty five minutes left until the tenth question.'_

* * *

"Alright everyone pencils down. It's time for the tenth question." Ibiki said once the remaining forty five minutes had passed. So far a total of nineteen teams had been caught cheating and subsequently eliminated from the exams. Ibiki looked over the remaining thirty six teams with veiled interest.

'_Hmm, a quite a few of them left so far.' _he thought with a fair bit of approval. '_Let's see how many choose to remain after hearing about the tenth question though.'_

"Now then before I give you the tenth question, let me explain the special rules about it. First if you get this question wrong, you automatically fail the exam, regardless of your answers to the nine previous questions." That bit of news hit the genin in front of him pretty hard as several gasped in surprise while others remained completely silent.

"Second, anyone who does not wish to answer the question may choose not to take it and opt out of the exam. This of course will result in a failure as well."

"Why the hell would anyone do that?" one of the genin shouted from his desk, a young man from Kusa. "At least if we take the stupid question we have a shot, plus even if we get it wrong there's always next time."

Ibiki smiled. It was not a pleasant expression to see on the scarred man's face. "That brings us to the third and final rule. Anyone who answers the tenth question incorrectly will never be allowed to take part in the chunin exams again. In any village."

There was a moment of stunned silence as the implications of Ibiki's words sank over the genin. Finally a genin from Ame broke the silence.

"That's bullshit! There are plenty of people here who've taken the exams before."

"I wasn't in charge of them then. I am now." was Ibiki's response.

"There's no way Konoha can enforce this rule on the other villages!" the same genin protested, "You can't keep us from taking the exams in another village!"

Ibiki smiled again as he walked over to the Ame genin and reached into his pocket. The genin flinched back, afraid the proctor was going for a knife, but all that Ibiki pulled out of his pocket was a sheet of paper.

"Read it and weep." Ibiki stated as he placed the paper on the genin's desk. The genin scoffed as he scooped up the paper and started reading. His eyes growing wide as he read.

"What does it say Tao?" a different Ame genin, likely Tao's teammate, asked.

"It's a contract stating that genin who fail the tenth question of the first exam will never be allowed to take the exams in any of the villages listed." Tao gulped, "There all listed and the leaders of each village has signed it. Even the Five Kage."

The whole room was silent as Ibiki plucked the contract from Tao's trembling hands and returned to his spot at the head of the classroom.

"So," he started as he turned his pitiless eyes towards the cowed genin, "who wants to risk their careers?"

* * *

Naruto watched stupefied as hand after hand rose into the air, none faster than that Tao guy from Ame. Naruto turned to look at his teammates to see which way they were leaning. Sasuke looked determined as ever, clearly not willing to give up under any circumstances. Sakura on the other hand looked worried.

'_Why's she worried? She's the smartest one in our team. It's not like she'll get a test answer wrong.' _A single look at his own exam paper filled him in however.

'_She's not worried about herself. She's worried about me. I'm the weak link here. She thinks I don't a have a chance of getting this question right.' _Naruto felt bitter at his teammates apparent lack of faith in him, but another look at his black exam paper told him it was very justified.

Naruto felt his hand beginning to raise. '_I should just opt out, apologize to Sakura and Sasuke for being such a fucking moron, and study like crazy for next time.' _Ibiki noticed the movement and focused his attention on Naruto.

'_I'm so stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.' _Naruto's hand went further up. Ibiki looked intently at Naruto as if waiting for further confirmation of the genin's surrender.

'_STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!' _Naruto's hand flashed downward, slamming on his desk top with a loud _clap._

"I don't give a damn what that paper says! Even if I get this stupid question wrong I'll still become the Hokage some day! My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I say bring on the damn question!"

For the second time that day, all eyes in the classroom were on Naruto Uzumaki because of his loud mouth.

Ibiki Morino stared in surprise at the blonde genin in the orange clothes, the self professed future Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, in surprise. '_Well he's got spunk.' _was the first thought that came to him. After a few moment the exam proctor looked around the room to find that none of the remaining genin seemed doubtful about the final question anymore. Each and everyone of them looked determined to see this through to the bitter end.

'_And he's managed to inspire the remainders to place it all on the line. Even the foreign shinobi.' _Ibiki had to admit to being a little impressed. Naruto had managed to convince 20 other teams to stick it out. Another look throughout the classroom reaffirmed what Ibiki had suspected none of the other genin were going to drop out. Still formalities had to be kept.

"This is your last chance." he said, his tone harsh. "Is anyone else going to opt out?" The 63 genin all stared defiantly at Ibiki. The exam proctor gave them another smile, this one considerably warmer than the last.

"In that case, I congratulate all of you on passing the first examination."

* * *

_The First Exam may be over but now the hard part starts. Next time The Second Exam: The Forest of Death!_


	22. The Second Exam: The Forest of Death

**And that's chapter 22 in the bag. Firstly I would like to apologize in advance for any lack of action within this chapter but trust me I working up to it. After all next time we finally get to see a certain "Snake" I'm sure we've all been waiting for. We may also finally see Sasuke's other Mangekyo jutsu. Anyway as always I hoped you enjoyed the chapter and please feel free to leave a review. **

* * *

_"In that case I congratulate all of you on passing the first examination."_

The words from Ibiki's mouth left every genin in the classroom, a total of 63, staring in utter disbelief. Ibiki watched the clock at the back of the room and noted it was a full minute before one of the brats could actually utter a syllable.

"We, we pass?" a genin from Suna asked. "But what about the tenth question?"

"Deciding whether or not to stay and take the risk was the tenth question." Ibiki replied, seeing the familiar look of confusion he saw every time he pulled something like this. "In life nothing is certain, but this is doubly so for shinobi. Every mission you will undertake as Chunin has the potential to be fatal. Therefore every time you are assigned a mission you will be given a choice, accept the mission with all of the risks, or play it safe and pass it on to someone else. Those who pass on the dangerous missions and only play it safe are unfit to be called Chunin."

"But if the only thing determining whether we pass or fail is sticking around for the tenth question, then what was the point of the first nine questions?" a Konoha genin asked.

"The point of the previous nine questions was twofold. First was to test you all to see how you would go about gathering the necessary information to complete your mission. To that end we had several plants within your group that already knew all of the answers for you to try to copy. They are then among the first to drop out for the tenth question so as not to muddy the results."

Ibiki continued, "The second reason for the previous nine questions was to weed out those who couldn't hack it." As he spoke Ibiki untied his bandana and showed the genin the price of being captured on mission. There were several scars stretching across his scalp as well a number of divots ranging from the size of a pinky tip to a golf ball scattered across his skull. "If you're caught while on a mission in enemy territory, expect a much harsher punishment than being banished from a classroom." A number of genin paled at the sight of his scars as he replaced his bandana.

* * *

Even without the sharingan active, Sasuke knew that the image of the Ibiki's scarred head would never leave him. The proctor had just finished tying his bandana when something rather unexpected happened. A shadowy figure burst in through a window and landed right in front of Ibiki. Sasuke and a few other genin all jumped to their feet, ready to fight, as the newcomer threw two kunai into the ceiling, hanging a large banner that read, 'Presenting the Second Examination Proctor!'

"Don't start celebrating just yet, you bunch of brats!" The newcomer loudly announced as she struck a pose that she must've figured was dramatic. The woman wore a brown skirt and metal shinguards. She also wore a beige trenchcoat over a fishnet shirt. Sasuke blushed slightly as he realized that she was wearing nothing else under the shirt. "Because Anko Mitarashi is here to take you all to your second exam!" The room was utterly silent as everyone just stared at the new exam proctor.

"You came in too early." Ibiki stated poking his head out from behind the banner.

"Oh, uh, oops." Anko said, sheepishly scratching the back of her head.

'She's like a grown up version of Naruto.' Sasuke thought as Anko took another look at the passing genin.

"Hey Ibiki what gives?" she said gesturing to the group. "Why you passing so many of the brats? You going soft old man?"

Ibiki scowled at the woman's words, "Never. We just have a good batch of genin this year."

"A good batch huh." Anko said before taking yet another look at the genin. "We'll see just how good you little brats really are then. Because by the time I'm done with you, at least half of you guys will wash out."

'Half!' Sasuke thought, surprised by the declaration. 'What could be so bad about the second exam that it will eliminate at least half of us?'

"You all have two hours to report to Training Ground 44 for you second examination. Don't be late or I'll fail you on the spot!" and with that Anko jumped out the window she had entered from.

* * *

Training Ground 44 was the customary place where the second exam of the Chunin Exams was held within Konoha. A large forested area with a wide array of dangerous animals and natural traps and pitfalls, many a genin had died trying to make it through to the tower in the center. Because of the rather large number of fatalities that have occurred over the years, the local shinobi have dubbed Training Ground 44 with the sobriquet, The Forest of Death.

All this was explained by Anko Mitarashi, the proctor of the second exam, when the final genin team arrived at the assembled crowd.

"So that's it?" Naruto muttered, unimpressed by the task set before them. "All we have to do is make it to the center of the forest? That doesn't sound too har..." he was silenced as a kunai flew right by his face, scratching his left cheek. An instant later Naruto felt someone's tongue press against his bleeding cheek.

"It's rude to interrupt someone while they're talking brat." Anko whispered in his ear, the smell of blood fresh on her breath. Naruto shivered as Anko straightened herself and continued to the rest of the group. "As I was saying, your task for the second examination is to test how well you'll move through a hostile environment, and it doesn't get much more hostile here than 44."

"But your job is much more difficult than simply making it to the tower at the center. Afterall most of the time you're moving through enemy territory you'll be carrying information vital to your village. As such each of your teams will be given a scroll, either heaven or earth. Your job before reaching the tower is to locate an enemy team with your opposite scroll and take theirs. This exam will last for five days, during which time every second will be a fight for your life. You will fail the exam if one of your teammates is killed, you fail to make it to the tower within the five days given, or if you read the scrolls before entering the tower. Are there any questions?"

The crowd of 63 genin were silent.

"Good now line up and grab your scrolls." Anko ordered pointing at the tent that was set up by the fence. "And try not to get killed in there."

* * *

Slightly shaken from his experience as the object of Anko's ire, Naruto silently lined up with Sakura and Sasuke as they waited to receive their scroll.

"Wow if I knew that's what it took to shut you up, I'd have thrown a kunai at your face years ago." Sakura chuckled.

"Sh-shut up." Naruto responded, face turning red. "It wasn't just the knife."

"He's right Sakura," Sasuke put in, unable to hide a smirk of amusement, "you'd also have to lick the blood from his face."

Sakura turned slightly green at the thought of ingesting Naruto's blood. "Ugh, never mind." she gagged as they stepped up to the desk. The chunin behind the desk handed them a heaven scroll before another chunin lead them away to one of the gates into the forest. The trio were silent as the chunin stopped in front of one of the many gates that lead into the training ground.

"This is where you'll enter the forest." the chunin stated, "Remember you have five days to get your opposite scroll and reach the tower. Good luck." and with that the chunin departed leaving Team 7 alone.

"So, who's going to hold onto the scroll?" Sakura asked after a few minutes of waiting for the gate to open.

"Personally I don't think Sasuke should hold onto it." Naruto stated. "He's the obvious choice which means that everyone's already going to be gunning for him." Both Sasuke and Sakura appreciated the logic Naruto had used.

"Probably shouldn't be you either Naruto." Sasuke said, taking the scroll out of his pouch. "After all you did manage to piss off practically every genin in that room a few hours ago." Naruto sheepishly scratched his head in response. "So that leaves…" Sasuke continued, offering the scroll to Sakura.

"Me?" she asked, "But it would be safer with one of you two. You guys are much better at fighting than I am."

"That's just it though." Sasuke replied, "Naruto and I will likely be doing most of the heavy fighting in there."

"Which means that of the three of us, we're the most likely to have something happen to us." Naruto continued, pick up on Sasuke's trail of thought. "It's safer if you have the scroll Sakura."

"Besides, it also makes sense to give the scroll to smartest person on the team." Sasuke added, pressing the heaven scroll into Sakura's hand. The kunoichi blushed a little at the contact before he vigorously nodded her head.

"I won't let you guys down."

* * *

Kado, Karin and Torren didn't have to wait long once they'd received their earth scroll. They were third from the back of the line and as such only had to wait a few short minutes for the gates to open up. Immediately the three Uzumaki rushed into the Forest of Death, hopping from branch to branch to keep their followable tracks to a minimum. They kept going until they found a small empty clearing.

"Alright we'll set up here." Kado said taking a seat on a fallen log. Torren propped himself against a tree and pulled out a brush, ink and little sheets of paper before. Karin stood in the center of the clearing."Karin do you sense any other teams nearby?"

Karin took a moment to close her eyes and concentrate on the forest around them. She extended her sensory abilities as far as they could go. "I sense a few teams not too far from here, some have stopped, maybe to set up a camp, two are already fighting I think."

"Well that didn't take long." Torren commented as he started brushing several elaborate strokes onto a sheet of paper. Once he finished applying the seal, Torren placed his finger on the paper and channeled his chakra into it. The seal upon the paper started to glow a bright blue before dimming again. "One down," he noted before looking at the remaining stack, "a bunch more to go."

Kado nodded in agreement, "Anything else Karin?"

"I don't think so… wait. I sense a team heading right for us." she said, eyes shooting wide open before pointing east. "From over there."

"Torren."

"Yeah I'm on it." Torren replied while moving through the hand signs for the sound amplification jutsu. He held his right hand to his ear while pointing his left palm to where Karin had indicated. Closing his eyes Torren focused on separating the sounds of the forest around them from his intended targets.

"... the Uzushio scum are just up ahead." one of the approaching genin said.

"Great then we'll get to finish off those little Uzumaki bastards once and for all."

Torren ended the jutsu and shrugged his shoulder before returning to work on his seals. "Well they're definitely coming for us." he said as he quickly brushed another another seal and imbued it with chakra as well, this one glowing a deep green.

"Great." Kado groaned as he pulled out his sunglasses. "They didn't happen to say what kind of scroll they had, did they?"

"Nope." Torren replied, finishing up a third seal, this one a deep crimson.

"Fantastic." Kado sighed before he slipped on his glasses, "How many seals do you have ready?"

"Well plus the three I just finished I have around fourteen paper seals." Torren answered as he pulled a stack of paper seals from his pouch. "Should be enough to get us to the tower."

Kado nodded before turning to face the direction the enemy was coming from. "They're almost here. Torren, give me a flash seal." There was a shuffling sound as Torren located the requested seal.

"Make sure you warn us first." he said handing it over.

"Will do, now get back. They're here."

As the words left him three figures landed on the far side of the clearing. All three had dark skin and platinum blonde hair. They wore what Kado assumed to be a standard issue uniform for Kumo genin, seeing as aside from a few personal touches on each, they were identical. The one in the middle, a young man a few years older than Kado and his team, wore two katanas on his back. The young woman on the left wore her katana on her hip, edge down. The third member, also a woman lacked a sword but made up for it with an impressive array of knives and throwing darts.

"Well look at what he have here." the man in the middle, Kado assumed him to be the leader, said. "A couple of lost little Uzumaki punks."

"I was afraid that someone else would've gotten to you first." the woman on the left sneered, hand resting none too subtly on her sword.

Kado smiled, "Well we appreciate your concern for our well being. I must say you Kumo shinobi sure did find us quickly."

"I was able to track your chakra signature all the way from our starting gate." the woman on the right informed him. "You Uzumaki's always foul up the air wherever you go."

"I told you we should've showered this morning." Torren said from his spot behind Kado.

"Speak for yourself Torren." Karin admonished, punching his shoulder.

"Alright that's enough you two." Kado ordered, never taking his eyes off the Kumo genin. "Now then, why don't we just tell each other which scroll we have?"

"And why would we do that?" the Kumo leader asked.

"Well if we have the same scroll we can skip the fighting and move on with our day." Kado explained. The three Kumo genin all laughed at Kado.

"And what makes you think we're hear for your scroll?"

"Well it is the point of this exam." Torren cut in, "Not that you Kumo shinobi are the type to pay attention to stuff like that."

"I'd keep that mouth shut little man." the woman with sword said, drawing her blade.

"We're not here for your scroll." the man continued, "Though it would be awfully convenient for us if you had the Heaven scroll, but you see we came here mainly for you three. You see Kumo put in a lot of work trying to wipe your clan out during the Second Shinobi War. We're hoping to start finishing the job here."

"Well don't we feel flattered." Karin spat at them. She would've continued but Kado held up his hand to silence her.

"So there's no way for us to leave this peacefully?" he asked.

"Oh you guys can leave peacefully alright." the man said drawing both his katana. "Feel free to peacefully allow us to send you to the next life."

Kado sighed as he held up the flash seal Torren had given him. "Very well then. I was hoping we could let bygones be bygones, but if you lot insist. We'll begin the avenging of Uzushio here. Torren! Karin!" Kado poured his chakra into the seal in his hand and a flash of light exploded from the paper just as the Kumo genin advanced.

* * *

"Ahh, nothing like the delicious taste of dango to get a girl through the afternoon." Anko said as she bit the final dumpling off the stick. As she swallowed the dango she tossed the stick into a nearby tree, completing a perfect Konoha leaf made from the sticks. Soon the sounds of screaming reached her ears.

"Hmm, sounds like the festivities have begun." she mused as a chunin appeared behind her.

"Captain Mitarashi." the chunin said while kneeling down.

"Yeah what is it?" she asked, only partially giving the chunin her attention.

"While I was patrolling the perimeter like you ordered I saw something odd." the chunin started. Anko was thankful he was smart to continue without prompt. "A team of dead genin."

'They didn't last very long did they?' Anko thought as she said, "You say that like nobody ever dies in that forest."

"That's just it though Captain. They weren't in the forest. They never got past the gate."

"Hmm, well that is a little odd but…"

"That's not the odd thing though. One of them was missing their face."

That got Anko's full and undivided attention.

* * *

_The Second exam is underway and danger lurks behind every tree. Unbeknownst to Team 7 however something far more dangerous than enemy genin is stalking them. Next time: A Snake in the Forest._


End file.
